Somalia: Pirate accused say they are fishermen with guns: lawyer

Eleven Somalis awaiting trial in Kenya for piracy after their high-seas arrest by the French navy deny their charges on the grounds they are fishermen with guns, their lawyer said Saturday.

Francis Kadima also told AFP after visiting the 11 in their Mombasa holding cells that he will challenge the legality of Kenya hosting their trial, on the grounds that agreements with the European Union, the United States and Britain may not have been ratified by Kenya's parliament.

"They say they are fishing. People laugh at other people's defence, but that's their defence," Francis Kadima told AFP.

"They even said, well, they had the guns or whatever. But they said that is normal for their own security. They say these guns are sold in the market."

The 11 were brought to Mombasa on Wednesday aboard the Nivose, a French frigate serving in the European Union's anti-piracy naval mission Atalanta, which captured them last week after pursuing what officials called a pirate "mother ship."

Their trial in the Kenyan port is to take place early in August.

Despite admitting possessing arms after Kenyan police produced four AK-47 assault rifles and 200 rounds of ammunitions by way of evidence for the prosecution, Kadima says he will challenge Kenya's the right to hold any trial.

"One of the issues we will be raising in these cases is the jurisdictional issue: whether these people, all these pirates, can be tried in Kenyan courts," the lawyer stated.

"We are hearing, but we don't know, about some agreements, between the European Union, the United Kingdom and the Americans with Kenya which says they can try suspected pirates.

"But the legality of those agreements obviously seems contentious... was that agreement tabled in parliament as it is required?"

Ransom-hunting pirates off lawless Somalia -- without an effective central government since 1991 -- have defied an increased international naval presence to step up attacks during favourable weather, seizing at least 11 ships in April alone.

Kenya is the region's only state to have agreements with most major naval powers facilitating their arrest and transfer.

Nevertheless, the United States -- in its first piracy trial for a century -- is also taking a teenager to court in New York after a US cargo-ship captain was held hostage for five days, forcing a dramatic mid-ocean rescue.



Source: AFP