The Tokyo District Court on Friday convicted a Somali national and sentenced him to 11 years imprisonment for attempting to hijack a Japan-operated oil tanker off the coast of Oman in March 2011.
He is the last of four Somali men brought to Japan to be tried under the 2009 antipiracy law. The three other defendants, all convicted of piracy at the court, have appealed their cases, which were tried under the lay judge system.
Unlike the three other men, the 21-year old defendant, whose name has been withheld because he was a minor at the time of the incident, had pleaded his innocence, saying he and the other three defendants were only seeking help from the Bahama-registered oil tanker while adrift due to engine trouble.