17 CHARGED WITH PIRACY IN KENYA
AFTER US NAVY HANDOVER
June
12, 2009
Seventeen Somali men detained at sea and handed over to
Kenyan authorities on Wednesday have been charged with
piracy by prosecutors. The men, the largest single group
seized at sea, were arrested as they attacked the
Egyptian-flagged Amira last month. The cache of weapons
taken when the men were overpowered by US Marines were
handed to prosectors as evidence.
There are 101 suspected pirates being held awaiting trial in
Kenya, with 10 already convicted and serving jail terms, and
courts in Mombasa are now so congested with piracy cases
that future prosecutions will take place in Malindi instead.
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?HEBEI TWO? FREED
June
12, 2009
The master and chief officer of the tanker Hebei Spirit have
been freed following the widely expected ruling from South
Korea?s Appeal Court that the men were not guilty of the
charge of vessel destruction. The two Indian officers have
been kept in South Korea for the past eighteen months, some
of it in prison. However, the lesser charge of causing
pollution was not overturned despite massive pressure from
the shipping industry to see the men fully exonerated.
ITF general secretary David Cockroft said: ?We are pleased -
everyone is pleased - to see these men?s innocence upheld.
But, like everyone in shipping, we find it unacceptable that
the lesser charge against them was never removed. We commend
them for their bravery these last 18 months, congratulate V
Ships for standing by them so effectively, and join everyone
who has struggled to get them set free in expressing relief
at their imminent return home. We cannot however excuse the
unfair criminalisation that they have undergone and the
contradictory nature of the dual verdicts.?
The ship?s operator V.Ships described the whole case as ?a
gross miscarriage of justice? said it was determined to
continue to work towards having the pollution charges wiped
from the records of the two officers.
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