Written by: Badr Ahmed
Forty-four Somali citizens, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court in the Indian city of Mumbai in cases related to maritime piracy, have submitted a formal request to be transferred to Somalia to complete their sentences, in a move that could constitute the first practical application of the prisoner transfer agreement between the two countries signed in 2017.
According to media reports, the prisoners submitted their requests one day after the verdicts were issued. The requests were directed to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the Somali Embassy in New Delhi, and the Somali government, to consider the possibility of carrying out the transfer in accordance with applicable legal procedures.
44 Somalis request to complete their sentences in their home country
The request is based on a bilateral agreement signed by Somalia and India in 2017, which allows citizens convicted in criminal cases to serve the remainder of their sentences in their home countries, provided that the competent authorities in both countries approve and that all legal and procedural conditions stipulated in the agreement are met.
If both governments agree to the request, these prisoners will become the first to be transferred under the agreement since it came into effect, giving the agreement its first practical application years after it was signed.
The prisoners, who are being held in Taloga Central Jail in Maharashtra state, confirmed that they meet the requirements for their transfer, expressing their desire to complete their sentence inside Somalia, which would allow them to stay close to their families and receive social support during their imprisonment.
For its part, the Indian authorities explained that implementing requests to transfer convicts requires official approval from the governments of India and Somalia, noting that the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs is the competent authority to study these requests and make the final decision regarding them, in coordination with the relevant authorities.
The special court in Mumbai issued its verdicts on July 20, 2026, after the defendants pleaded guilty to the charges against them, which included violating the provisions of India’s Anti-Piracy Act of 2022, along with charges related to acts of piracy in territorial waters.
The case dates back to 2024, when the Indian Navy carried out two separate operations that resulted in the arrest of the accused, after they were accused of hijacking an Iranian fishing vessel and a commercial ship in the Arabian Sea, before they were transferred to Mumbai and brought to justice.
It is worth noting that in 2018, India returned about 117 Somali citizens to their country after the end of their sentences. However, no transfer of prisoners between the two countries has been recorded so far under the 2017 agreement, which makes the current request of interest as a real test of the judicial cooperation mechanism between New Delhi and Mogadishu.
