Five pirates sent to jail by Rotterdam court

A DUTCH court has sentenced five Somalis to jail terms of up to seven years for piracy, after they were caught by the Dutch navy in the Gulf of Aden in November, armed with machine guns and bazookas.

All were accused of hijacking a South African yacht, the Choizil, off Tanzania's coast. Three were acquitted of involvement in the incident but convicted of piracy. A statement from the Rotterdam court said the judges dismissed arguments that the accused were motivated by poverty and famine.

One member of the yacht's crew was rescued by a European Union anti-piracy task force, but two others were taken hostage and have not been heard from since.

The men, all in their early 20s, were were tried under Netherlands laws giving the country international jurisdication against piracy.

Many vessels have been seized in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden in recent years by armed pirates seeking multi-million pound ransoms.

Piracy attacks rose by a third in the first half of this year and became increasingly violent, the International Maritime Bureau has said, but successful hijackings have declined due to navy patrols.