Following diplomatic efforts by Iran's foreign ministry and the Iranian embassy in Kenya, 17 sailors who had illegally and unknowingly entered Somalia's territorial waters in October 2017 and were sentenced to two years in jail by a local court and were also fined, were set free and handed over to the Iranian embassy in Nairobi Kenya.
The freed sailors were later returned to Iran by airplane and were welcomed by Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Panahi Azar at Imam Khomeini International Airport.
