During the country’s first-ever piracy trial, prosecutors said the attack on the 106,000–dwt Guanabara (built 2007) off Oman involved the use of rifles and an attempt to take the 24-man crew hostage.

They called the raid “dangerous and malicious”.

The court was told to view it in the same way as multiple shootings involving yakuza gangsters in Japan.

But defence lawyers for the Somali men, Mohammed Urgus Adeysey and Abdinur Hussein Ali, focused on their illiteracy and severe poverty.

They want to see a suspended prison sentence, adding that none of the crew was hurt and the hijacking failed.

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