Somalia: Pirates Extradited To The Netherlands
(Somaliland Globe) 11 Feb 2009 – Five suspected Somali pirates intercepted in the Gulf of Aden as they attacked a Dutch cargo ship last month were extradited on Tuesday to the Netherlands. The five men, held aboard a Danish naval vessel since the January 2 incident, were flown to the Netherlands on a military plane from the Gulf state of Bahrain, prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin told AFP.
The Dutch legal experts say that the men risk up to nine years in jail if found guilty, with the leader of the group facing a possible 12-year sentence.
A participating Danish Frigate intercepted their high-speed powerboat in the first days of a multinational anti-piracy task force in the Gulf of Aden.
Prosecutors say the men were preparing to board a Dutch Antilles cargo ship, the Samanyulo.
“Investigators have taken statements from those on board the attacked cargo vessel,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
This is the Netherlands’ first judicial case against Somali pirates.
France jailed 12 Somalis last year after French commandos swooped on the hijackers of two luxury yachts in the same shipping lane.
Pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden last year, an increase of more than 200 percent on 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau which tracks piracy and shipping security issues.
Heavily armed pirates operate high-powered speedboats and sometimes hold ships for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship-owners.
More than 150 suspected pirates have been arrested by naval patrols in the Gulf in 2008, the International Maritime Organization, another marine safety group, was told at a conference in Djibouti in January.
Nineteen of the suspects were handed over to European states whose ships were attacked, while 85 others were taken into custody by the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland, or by Yemen, according to a Djibouti document presented to the conference.
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