Ten Somali pirates captured early this year by the United States navy off the coast of the lawless nation will serve a seven-year jail term in Kenya for piracy and hijacking.

Trial Magistrate Beatrice Jaden handed down the ruling in the coastal city of Mombasa on Wednesday but the accused who had challenged the jurisdiction of the Kenyan court which had charged them with piracy, immediately vowed to appeal against the ruling, saying several issues remain unresolved.

"We will raise several issues which have to be addressed in the High Court, especially the one on jurisdiction. This being the first of its kind in Kenya it is important for the High Court to determine jurisdiction. We shall appeal against this judgment," said defense attorney Hassan Abdi.

"We hope the case was not brought in Kenya for political purposes," Abdi told reporters outside the courtroom. The ten Somali suspects had maintained they were fisherman and had not held 16 crew members of an Indian ship for ransom.

When the case opened in February, the suspects' lawyer told the court that it had got no jurisdiction to hear the matter, arguing that since the suspects were captured by U.S. sailors in Somali waters aboard an Indian dhow, Kenya had no authority to try the men.

However, the trial magistrate rejected all these arguments.

The U.S. navy's fifth fleet captured the men on Jan. 21, about 85 km off Somalia's central eastern coast, a day after unsuccessfully attacking a merchant ship the previous day.

They were aboard an Indian dhow whose 16-member crew told U.S. sailors that the gunmen who were using their boat as a "mother ship " to launch attacks on other vessels had hijacked them.

Source: Xinhua