The specialized penal court in Yemen’s Hadramout province sentenced on Saturday three Somalis to ten years in prison each after convicting them of committing acts of piracy including hijacking ships international waters off the country, the state Saba agency reported.
The court also fined the Africans 770,000 YR (about $3000) that went to the victim Saeed Al-Jemhi who was kidnapped along with his boat by the pirates for 15 days, according to the agency.
The prosecution earlier accused the Somali pirates of hijacking the boat of Al-Jemhi and another boat of Westerners and that they used the Yemeni boat for pirate acts to affect the status of Yemen.
In recent years, Yemei has tried and sentenced many Somali pirates to jail terms after convicting them committing acts of piracy which has declined in the past few years after many countries dispatched forces to combat it off Somalia and Yemen.
Separately, unknown gunmen bombed late on Friday the Shabwa-Bir Ali oil pipeline which has been repeatedly attacked in recent months, according to officials at the oil ministry.
The pipeline carries about 200 barrels a day from Block 4 operated by KNOC to the Bir Ali terminal on the Gulf of aden.
Yemen’s oil and gas pipelines have been repeatedly attacked since 2011 when mass protests erupted to demand the departure of the former regime. The attacks have cost Yemen billions of USD lost revenues just as the country is struggling to cope with severe economic woes which have been deepened by unrest.