Yemen Post
Fuad Rajeh
Sunday, April 19, 2009
A judicial source at the Specialized Penal Court in Sana'a said on Sunday 12 suspected pirates, who were arrested by international forces patrolling the Indian Ocean on anti-pirate operations late last year, will face court on piracy charges.
The source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, made clear invistigations with the suspected pirates have been completed.
However, the source declined to give further details.
Some of those in custody object to being labeled pirates and say they are simply protecting both their right to make a living and the coastline of Somalia.
“We are not pirates, but we are defending our country. There are a lot of ships that throw poisonous rubbish into our territorial waters and go back loaded with our fish,” Ahmed Abdullah Musa, 26, one of the 12-member group captured by an Indian ship said during an interview with the Saudi Riyadh Newspaper at the prison last week
Separate from the expected appearance in a Yemeni court, Dutch naval forces said they captured seven pirates and freed 20 captive fishermen after tracking the pirates to their mother ship in the western Gulf of Aden on Saturday, a NATO maritime spokesman told media outlets
After the Dutch disarmed the pirates, they released them, the source said, adding because the crew was on a NATO mission, they lacked the jurisdiction to hold them.
Saturday's rescue operation happened after pirates failed to take over petroleum tanker MT Handy tankers Magic, according to the company website.
Somali pirates are getting wilder and out of control, pirate spokesman Ali Sugulle said on April 11. "They go too far away from the Somali [coast] and go to Gulf of Aden, the Kenyan coast even.
The issue of piracy in the Gulf of Aden has attracted international attention in the past two years. There were 62 attacks in the first nine months of 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre. Last month saw a spike in pirate activity off the east coast of Somalia with 15 attacks on vessels reported, the centre said.
Source: Yemen Post, April 19, 2009