7 Somali pirates sentenced to life in jail

MOGADISHU, Somalia—Seven Somali pirates were sentenced to life in jail Monday and authorities vowed similarly tough penalties for others in an effort to crack down on a surge in pirate attacks.

Judge Sheik Mohamed Abdi Aware said at the close of the trial in the semiautonomous region of Puntland that the men's sentences would begin immediately. Their lawyers may appeal.

The seven were arrested five days ago in a raid by Puntland security forces, who were responding to the reported hijacking of the Dubai-flagged ship al-Khaleej off the Somali coast.

Puntland's information minister Abdi-rahman Bangah warned that anyone found engaging in piracy in the region would face a similar sentence.

Piracy is rampant along Somalia's 1,880-mile coast, which is the longest in Africa and near key shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean.

The seas around Somalia have seen over a dozen pirate attacks this year alone. Following the seizure of a luxury French yacht this month, six Somalis were extradited to France and are awaiting trial in Paris.

Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have a navy, and a transitional government formed in 2004 with U.N. help has struggled to assert control. The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region.

The United States and France are introducing a U.N. resolution that would allow countries to chase pirates off Somalia's coast, board their vessels and arrest them so they can be prosecuted.

The draft Security Council resolution circulated Monday expresses deep alarm at "the increasing number of acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels."

The draft resolution authorizes countries, with approval from Somalia's transitional government, to enter the country's territorial waters to use "all necessary means to identify, prevent, and repress actions of piracy and armed robbery."

Countries would be able to engage in "boarding, searching, and seizing vessels engaged in or suspected of engaging in acts of piracy or armed robbery" for a six-month period, according to the draft.

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Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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