SANA’A, June 29 — A security court in Yemen on Tuesday sentenced eight men, including thee Africans, to death after convicting them of drug trafficking, and separately sent six Somali pirates to prison, state-run Saba news agency reported.
The ruling issued by the Hadramout-based court, southeast of the capital Sanaa, read that the eight traffickers, including a Tanzanian, a Kenyan, and a Somali, were found guilty of trying to smuggle 1.68 kg of drugs.
Separately, the same security court handed down a sentence of 12 years in prison on six Somalis convicted of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, according to Saba.
“The six convicted Somali pirates will be deported to their homeland after serving their sentences,” the verdict cited by Saba read.
The court also ordered the confiscation of their boat and weapons, Saba said. However, the report did not say when these pirates were arrested.
The Gulf of Aden, off the southern coast of Yemen, has the highest risk of piracy in the world. About 25,000 ships pass every year through the maritime trade route that connects the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
Similarly, a Yemeni court last Saturday upheld death sentences against two Pakistanis convicted of drug trafficking, state media reported.
“Salim Dawod Abdulrahim and Imam Bakhsh Eyepub Yakoub received the death penalty after the court convicted them of smuggling 1,695 kilograms of hashish into Yemen through its coastal territories,” official Saba news agency cited the court’s verdict as saying.
It said two other Pakistani convicts “Ghulam Jan Wali Mohamed and Mohamed Sadiek Ahmed Badi were sentenced to 25-year jail terms for being involved in facilitating the drug trafficking into the Yemeni territories.”
According to Yemeni official media, the appeal court also upheld the acquittal of the remaining seven Pakistani defendants for lack of evidence.
A total of 11 Pakistani fishermen were arrested in May 2008 together with 1,695 kilograms of hashish smuggled from Pakistan in Yemen’s territorial waters. Their trial proceedings began last December.