Somalia: Indonesian fishermen in court over illegal fishing

Two Indonesian citizens have appeared in a court in the Somalia Northeastern autonomous region of Puntland accused of illegal fishing, Horseed Media reports.
Captain Mohli Batiwawa, 46, and Aziz Hermans, 56, were detained by the Puntland marine forces after their fishing vessel sunk in the territorial waters of the autonomous state.
The prosecutor of Nugal court, Mohamed Hared accused both of them for fishing without a permit in Puntland territorial waters.
Following the hearing of the case, the lawyer of the fishermen requested for the postponement of the case for a further two weeks.
Court officials announced that the case will be preceded on the 10^th of November.
In 2013, a court in Puntland imposed nearly $1 million fine on 92 Iranian fishermen for illegal fishing.
For decades, foreign trawlers from Europe and Asia have traveled to Somalia waters to take what they can without permission or licenses. They use efficient mechanical equipment, taking massive numbers of fish stocks. It is estimated that Somalia looses more than $200 million per year because of these foreign trawlers, a huge amount that would be enough to build basic infrastructure in the war-ravaged nation
Somalia waters, particularly off the coast of the semi-autonomous state of Puntland in the country’s North, contain some of the world’s most important stocks of tuna, anchovies, sharks, rays, lobsters, and shrimps, but they are barely monitored or policed, and wide open to legal and illegal plunder.
Horseed Media