Prateek Tanmay
2 min readJul 20, 2026 06:42 PM IST
A special court in Mumbai on Monday sentenced 44 Somali pirates, arrested in 2024 in two separate cases, to life imprisonment. In their pleas before the court earlier, they had spoken about the hardships they had been facing due to difference in language, diet, culture and lifestyle, hoping for leniency from the court and the government.
Special judge Sanjay Dige said that the Somali pirates were found guilty under various sections, including the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and attempted murder, kidnapping under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Nine of the 44 Somali pirates were arrested after the Indian Navy in March 2024 intercepted an Iranian fishing vessel hijacked by the pirates. The vessel was also carrying some Pakistanis. The same month, the Navy apprehended 35 pirates for allegedly hijacking a merchant vessel.
The men were brought to Mumbai and arrested by the Yellow Gate police station. All 44 Somali pirates had earlier pleaded guilty.
‘Facing hardships over language, culture, diet’: Pirates
The pirates, in their pleas filed before the special court, had said that they are languishing in judicial custody for two years and facing severe hardships in prison due to the difference in their language, culture, diet and lifestyle and lack of any support from their families or friends.
They said their decision to plead guilty was voluntary, as they hoped for leniency from the judiciary and the Indian government. “…and we are poor citizens of an ally country with good diplomatic relations with the Government of India,” the pleas stated.
Special public prosecutor Ranjeet Sangle had told court that the men be given the punishment in accordance with the offences they are charged with.
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While they were represented earlier by a lawyer through the Embassy of Somalia, the men told court that they did not have a lawyer, after which they were directed to be represented by a lawyer from the Legal Aid Defense Counsel System (LADCS). LADCS chief Samyak Gimekar and lawyer Sumit Kokate represented the men before the court.
