(CNN) -- Five Somali men were convicted of plotting a hijack at sea and sentenced to five years in prison in the Netherlands in the first trial of pirates in Europe, CNN affiliate RTL reported Thursday.
The trial of the five opened in Rotterdam District Court May 25.
The five were captured by the Danish navy in January 2009 in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, after a cargo ship with Dutch Antilles flag was attacked, said Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for Netherlands National Prosecutor's Office.
"The ship of the pirates was destroyed by the Danish navy, and the pirates were captured and handed to the Dutch authorities," he said.
The men are Ahmed Yusuf Farah, 25, Jama Mohamed Samatar, 45, Abdirisaq Abdulahi Hirsi, 33, Sayid Ali Garaar, 39, and Osman Musse Farah, 32, he said.
They had faced a maximum sentence of 9 to 12 years, he added.
