Yemeni court drops charges against Egyptian fishermen

QASHAN, Mar. 08 (Saba) - The Qashan Primary Court in the province of
Mahara has cleared three Egyptian fishermen of illegal entering
Yemen's territorial waters and fishing without official licenses.

The court deemed on Saturday the arrests of the three Egyptians as
unlawful and owing to insufficient evidence the court dropped
convictions against the three.

Moreover, the court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Fisheries
Office in the province against the Egyptians as unproved.

The Egyptian fishermen have been released with their boats and fish
onboard.

On January20, the Yemeni navy seized an Egyptian boat that was
fishing illegally in the country's territorial waters.

The boat was captured in the Ras Eassa area of the Red Sea with
twenty-four Egyptian fishermen onboard seized as well.

Earlier, the navy seized four Egyptian boasts while illegally
fishing in Yemen's waters.

Last year, a Yemeni court fined three Egyptian boats $ 150.000,which
were held for fishing illegally in Yemeni waters.

However, the boats were released, with the fish on board to the
captains. Yemen and Egypt signed an agreement last year under which
Egyptian fishing boats are required to obtain licenses from Yemeni
authorities to fish in Yemeni waters.

Before the signing, an Egyptian fishing boat attacked a Yemeni
coastguard patrol in the Red Sea killing a coastguard and injuring
another.

In response to the attack, Yemen intensified measures to curb
foreign fishing in its waters, imposing a ban on Egyptian boats in
particular.

FR