A group of Somali nabbed at sea and hauled ashore by European navies crowded into a Mombasa courthouse Thursday to face piracy charges. They could end up behind bars for life.

Eleven Somalis were charged with piracy Thursday as the trial for nine other alleged pirates entered a second day.

The men all denied the charges, but admitted to possessing weapons, which they claimed were for self-defence, before the court in Kenya's port town of Mombasa.

The suspected pirates were captured by French and German forces off the Somali coast, where they allegedly attacked several merchant ships in the area.

International Tribunal
Kenya that borders Somalia, the lawless epicentre of a flourishing pirate industry, has become the lead prosecutor of suspected pirates. It is ramping up prosecutions amid talks of establishing an international piracy tribunal.

Kenya has laid the groundwork for such a tribunal by striking deals with the European Union (EU) and the United States that allows it to try suspected pirates captured by navies from those countries.

Pirates have been tried in Kenya before. In November last year, eight Somalis were charged for piracy after being turned over by the British Royal Navy, while 10 other were sentenced in 2006 to seven years in prison.

Law of the sea
Also on Thursday, the president of the UN-sponsored International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Germany, Luis Jesus, said that body is ready to take piracy cases.

Under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, any country can try a piracy case irrespective of the pirates' nationalities or the vessel they hijacked. Most countries with navies patrolling off the coast of Somalia have ratified the convention, as has Kenya, but the US has not.

Dangerous coast
Although maritime piracy is increasingly widespread, Somalia's coast has been ranked as the most dangerous in the world due to a surge in attacks on ships carrying traded goods or humanitarian aid.

In other efforts to combat piracy in Somalia, which has not had an effective central government since 1991, donors at a conference in Brussels pledged over 165 million Euros ($213 million) Thursday to improve the country's internal security.

Experts believe the underlying causes of piracy - unemployment, poverty and insecurity on land - drive young men into a life of seafaring crime.