Somali suspects brought to trial in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam yesterday denied all charges of "sea robbery."

“I was hungry!" one of the men told the court. "This explains my presence on the boat. I was looking for food. And now I am in jail! Do you want to make me mad?”

Angry and assertive, these five men appeared in a Dutch court on Tuesday, in the first European piracy trial since the recent spate of hijackings started off the coast of Somalia. Last year the Somali men were picked up in the Gulf of Aden and charged with trying to hijack a ship from the Dutch Antilles. They say they’re fishermen.

One of the defendants, Mohammed, is about 44 years old. He wears a grey beard and a coloured, striped shirt. Mohammed has a wife and children. Exited and with loud voice he tells us his story.

“I went on a trip to look for money. It was my plan to visit some family members, ask for help. I ended up in this fishermen boat. Yes, I had a Kalashnikov. I have to be able to defend myself. I have been battered. You can see my scars.”

“But why a ladder in this boat?” asks the Dutch judge. “Why do you need a ladder on open sea?” The suspect says the ladder served as a steer. The judge looks surprised.

Mohammed continues his story. The journey took eight hours, nine hours. Suddenly, the engine broke down. The fishermen bobbed up and down on the water. Then they saw the Dutch ship. They didn’t want to hijack, they needed help. But the Somali vessel was besieged and the small boat sank.

But sailors on board the Dutch Antilles-flagged shipped told a different story: 

"I saw that one of the men had a rocket launcher in his hands," the ship's first machinist told investigators of last year's attack in a statement read out in the Rotterdam court.

He said the pirates, allegedly the five Somali men in court, shot at the ship with assault rifles and later "I saw the rocket launcher being aimed at the bridge. I saw it go off, but it missed. I feared for my life."

The Netherlands issued European arrest warrants for the five men three weeks after their arrest, and they were flown on a military plane from Bahrain the following month to the Netherlands, where they have been in custody ever since.

Poverty
Extreme poverty is the reason why Mohammed finds himself in this Rotterdam court, he says. “I am not able to buy a packet of sugar!” he shouts. "I possess nothing! Everything is expensive in Somalia. I need help!”

“What would be your plans as a free man?“ the judge asks. Mohammed: “Could my family come and live here? Or could you give me enough money to return to Somalia? If the Dutch government doesn’t give me enough money, I’ll end up with nothing.”

“One year and a half I have been in prison for nothing. I’m in trouble. I believe I’ll go mad. Apart from that, everything is fine.”

The trial is expected to last five days and judgement is set to be handed down on June 16, Vincent de Winkel, a spokesman for the Rotterdam court, told AFP.