Five suspected Somali pirates accused of hijacking a South African yacht and abducting two of its occupants are to stand trial in the Netherlands, Dutch prosecutors said in a statement on Monday.

The five Somali suspects, aged between 20 and 30, are expected to stand trial at the Dutch city of Rotterdam soon. They face prison terms ranging from 9 to 12 years if convicted of the charges pressed against them.
The suspects were part of a 20-member group arrested off the coast of Somalia in two separate operations led by Dutch naval vessel the HMS Amsterdam on November 7. The others were released due to insufficient evidence against them.

The suspects were transferred to the Netherlands on Sunday. They are accused of hijacking a South African yacht and abducting a couple who were on board the vessel. There is still no word about the abducted couple, who are believed to be held in Somalia.

This is the not first time that suspected Somali pirates are being tried at a Dutch court. A court in Rotterdam had sentenced five Somali men to five years in prison on piracy charges in June after finding them guilty of attacking a Dutch-Antilles-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden last year.

The Somali coast, particularity the Gulf of Aden, is infested with pirates with over 160 attacks reported in the waters off Somalia since the beginning of last year. The Somali pirates are currently believed to be holding some 23 ships and 500 hostages. Generally, the crew and the vessels are returned unharmed on receiving the demanded ransom.

Pirate attacks off the Somali coast have continued despite the presence of several warships, deployed by navies of the NATO, the European Union, Russia, China, South Korea and India, in the region to protect cargo and cruise ships against piracy.

Recently, the EU force deployed in the region as part of the international anti-piracy mission announced extending the area covered by its current operations off the coast of Somalia in an effort to counter the pirates' tactics of shifting operations into new areas to avoid detection.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's government in 1991. Currently, a weak UN-backed interim government under President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is trying to enforce its authority in the country, most of which is controlled by various Islamist insurgent groups.

The UN Security Council has approved four resolutions since June to promote international efforts in fighting the escalating piracy problem off the coast of Somalia. The resolutions authorize countries involved in anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast to conduct land and air attacks on Somali pirates after obtaining prior permission from the interim Somali government.