A French court has jailed five Somali men for between four and eight years for hijacking a yacht and taking a French couple hostage. The incident took place in the Gulf of Aden in September 2008. A French navy team raided the vessel, Carre d'As, two weeks later, killing one captor and detaining the others. A sixth man was acquitted. It is France's first prosecution of suspected Somali pirates. The prosecutors had asked for the men, now aged between 21 and 36, to be sent to jail for between six and 16 years. They were charged with hijacking, kidnapping and armed robbery after seizing the boat and its crew. They were accused of attacking the Carre d'As on 2 September 2008 and demanding a ransom of $2m (£1.3m; 1.5m euros) for the release of French couple Jean-Yves and Bernadette Delanne, both aged 60. A lawyer for one of the defendants said he was a fisherman who had been forced to take part in the attack because he was a seafarer. Another lawyer said the organisers of the attack were still at large. Somali suspects in three other French piracy cases are awaiting trial. The International Maritime Bureau has said that better policing and improved security have reduced successful hijackings by Somali pirates this year. Nevertheless, attacks linked to Somalia made up more than half the piracy incidents reported worldwide. The case was heard in a Paris court for minors because one of the defendants was a minor at the time of the attack.