Kenyan pirates trial delayed

2006-02-06 23:01

Mombasa - The trial of 10 Somalis, accused of being pirates and who were captured by the United States navy, was delayed by a shortage of interpreters on Monday.

The 10 first appeared in court on Friday and were charged with attacking a dhow in the Indian Ocean, detaining and threatening its 16-member crew and demanding a ransom from the captain.

The court failed to find an independent interpreter for Monday's proceedings at which a magistrate was expected to set the trial date. The court is now expected to set the date on Wednesday.

The US navy presented the suspects to Kenyan authorities on January 29.

The US sailors boarded the vessel on January 22 in response to a report from the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur two days earlier that pirates had fired on the MV Delta Ranger, a Bahamian-flagged bulk carrier that was passing about 320km off the central eastern coast of Somalia.

Piracy still rampant

The dhow's crew later told navy investigators that pirates hijacked them on January 16 near Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and thereafter used their vessel to stage pirate attacks on merchant ships.

Piracy is rampant off the coast of Somalia, which has no effective government of its own to respond.

The Horn of African nation has been in chaos since opposition leaders ousted a dictatorship in 1991 and later turned on each other.

- AP