[Iran Press TV] A pirate ringleader is to be executed after his death sentence was passed down by a court in the breakaway Somali state of Puntland.Salah Mohamed Gelle has received the execution sentence for murdering Sayid Jacfar, the Pak skipper of hijacked fat merchantman the MV QSM Dubai, in early June.
He along with seven other pirates took part in the assault but is the only one facing a death sentence, while the others face jail terms of between 10 and 17 years.
Some of the jailed pirates were also ordered to pay minor fines of roughly $2,000 (£1,260) by the Bossasso court in Puntland.
The presiding judge, Mohamed Yusuf, told AFP that "Salah Mohamed Gelle, the first defendant was found guilty of killing the captain Sayid Jacfar and therefore was sentenced to execution."
The ship, a 15,000-tonne Panama-flagged vessel, was captured in the Gulf of Aden on June 2.
Puntland an autonomous state within Somalia since 1998 has in recent times become a notorious base used by local pirates from which their operations are launched.