Seven suspected Somali pirates went on trial yesterday in France for hijacking a French yacht in the Gulf of Aden back in 2011. The defendants are accused of killing the lone male aboard the catamaran and kidnapping his wife, who survived the ordeal and was rescued.
Reuters reports that the seven men who all face life in prison, have not been charged with homicide, but with hijacking – a crime punishable with life imprisonment – as well as theft, abduction and illegal confinement, according to Martin Pradel, the lawyer of one of the suspected attackers.
The trial, set to last two weeks, is the latest in a series of judicial cases in France involving maritime piracy abroad.
The couple were sailing from Yemen to Oman on a trip around the world when gunmen seized their yacht. Evelyne Colombo told her rescuers that the assailants had dumped her husband’s body in the sea after he was killed.
