Dutch Court Ruling On Alleged Somali Pirates

Instead of having to translate the verdict myself, the Court was kind enough to make an English press release, which is below.
The short version: all 5 men have been sentenced to 5 years in jail.

Judgement case Somali pirates

Today the district court of Rotterdam rendered judgement in the case of five Somali men suspected of piracy. They were arrested in the Gulf of Aden on 2 January 2025 by a Danish naval vessel at an attack of the Samanyolu, flying under the flag of the Netherlands Antilles. They were transferred to the Netherlands on 10 February 2024 for trial.

The defences put forward by the lawyers to bar the prosecutor have not been granted. One of the questions to be answered in that respect was whether the Dutch court has jurisdiction in this case. According to the court this is the case, now that the Netherlands has vested so-called universal jurisdiction in the Criminal Code for cases of piracy on open sea. This national regulation is not contrary to international conventions.

The Court agrees with the lawyers that it took too long before the suspects were brought before a judge after their arrest. In this case this was 40 days. That could and should have been done earlier. This constitutes a breach of article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, no consequences follow from this in these criminal proceedings.

All 5 suspects are pronounced guilty as charged. It is proved that they went out to sea in a small boat, heavily armed, with the plan to hijack a ship. No credence was given to their statements that they only committed violence out of self-defence against an attack by the Samanyolu crew.

The judgement emphasizes that piracy in the Gulf of Aden forms a serious threat for international shipping and that this should be dealt with firmly. The unfavourable circumstances in Somalia, both in a general sense and concerning the suspects personally, have not been accepted as a justification for acts of piracy.

All 5 suspects have received a 5-year prison sentence. The sentence is lower than the 7 years demanded. Although to a minor extent, it has been taken into consideration that in other comparable cases the arrested suspects were released and will not be tried. It has furthermore been taken into consideration that detention in the Netherlands forms a heavy burden on the suspects, who are far from home and can not, or hardly, maintain contact with their families in Somalia.