Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni state security court on Monday sentenced a Pakistani man to death and 15 others to 25 years in prison for smuggling drugs into the Arabian Peninsula country.

The court convicted the 16 men of smuggling around 10,000 kilograms of hashish into Yemen through the Arabian Sea.

The men were arrested in September after their boat was seized by Yemeni coast guard patrols about 50 miles off the south-eastern Yemeni port of Mukalla, prosecutors told the court.

Yemen's south-eastern coast is used by drug-traffickers from Iran and Pakistan as a gateway to oil-rich countries in the Gulf.

In November, a court in Sana'a sentenced an Iranian man to death and 11 other Iranians as well as a Pakistani man to 25 years in jail over drug trafficking charges. (dpa)