Mogadishu: Six foreigners including three
Britons and an American were jailed for between 10 and 15
years in Somalia after the seizure of a small aircraft
carrying USD 3.6 million allegedly destined to be paid as
ransom to Somali pirates.
"The American and one of the Britons who carried the cash
were sentenced to 15-year jail terms and to pay USD 15,000
each," Hashi Elmi Nur, chief justice of Mogadishu's Banadir
court, told reporters.
The six were arrested on May 24 after a plane landed at
Mogadishu and was waiting for another small plane to come in,
collect the cash and fly it to another destination in the
country, Mohamed Omar, a Somali government security official,
said earlier.
"The other four, among them the pilots of the aircraft,
were given 10-year prison terms and have been fined USD 10,000
each," he said.
All the money they were transporting and both aircraft
had been confiscated by the government, he added.
An official said that the foreigners said the money
was destined to be used as a ransom payment.
However, the nationalities of the other two foreigners
and the exact circumstances behind the planned payment were
not known.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, June 19, 2011, 13:28