Bartamaha (Nairobi):- A Kenyan court on Friday freed 17 Somali men detained by the U.S. Navy at sea and accused of piracy, saying the Navy didn’t provide the necessary evidence to convict the suspects.

The decision has left authorities in a dilemma over what to do with the Somali men since the court did not order them repatriated back to their country, the men’s lawyer said.

Attorney Jared Magolo said a magistrate’s court in the coastal town of Mombasa ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the Somali men attacked the MV Amira, an Egyptian-flagged ship, in May 2009.

Magolo said the magistrate blamed the loss of the case on the U.S. Navy, who captured the Somalis, for not providing video and photographic proof that the Navy claimed to have.

Magolo said the magistrate court did not order the men repatriated to Somalia because international law prohibits extraditing a person back to a country at war.

He said the police did know what to do with the Somalis since they cannot put them back in prison without orders from the court.

Somali pirates usually seize ships in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest waterways, for multimillion dollar ransoms. Pirates have also increased attacks in the Indian Ocean off East Africa.

Kenya is among a handful of countries that have prosecuted pirates. One of the key concerns about jailing pirates is what to do with them once their sentence is up.

Kenya has previously said it is reviewing agreements with the international community to prosecute pirates from Somalia, its East African neighbor. A key concern is the security threat Somalis suspected of piracy may pose if they are acquitted or after they have served their jail term.

Kenya wants other countries to share the burden of prosecuting pirates. The country currently has some 136 pirates among its 53,000 inmates.

Last May the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said American sailors apprehended the 17 Somalis for allegedly attacking the Egyptian-flagged merchant ship Amira in waters off Yemen.

The sailors from the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg also seized eight assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher when they boarded the pirates’ vessel.

The Gettysburg launched the operation with the help of the Korean Destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great after pirates fired at the Motor Vessel Amira about 75 miles south of Yemen’s al-Mukalla port, the Navy said.

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Source:- ABC News.

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