A judicial magistrate on Wednesday sentenced 276 Indian and Iranian fishermen for a period they have already spent in detention and directed the authorities concerned to make arrangements for their repatriation.
The court convicted 261 Indian and 15, Iranian fishermen after they entered a guilty plea while co-accused Ismail Elahi Bux, who was arrested along with the Iranian fishermen in February, pleaded not guilty and claimed that he was a Pakistani.
The judicial magistrate (west), Salman Amjad Siddiqui, also imposed a fine of Rs1,000 on each convict and ordered that in the case of default, they would have to undergo an additional 15-day imprisonment.
The magistrate also directed the jail authorities to approach the department concerned to make arrangements for their repatriation.
The Maritime Security Agency had detained the fishermen and seized their boats after finding them fishing inside the Pakistani territorial waters in the Arabian Sea in separate actions taken between November 2015 and March 2016.
The cases were registered against them under Sections 3/4 of the Foreigners Act and 3/9 of the Fisheries Act at the Docks police station.