The Netherlands takes the pirates" trial over from the Antilles

January 22, 2009 4:38 AM

The Netherlands has agreed to a request from the Antilles to trial the five Somalis that tried to hijack the freighter Samanyolu that sails under the Antillean flag, in the Netherlands.  Justice-minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin (CDA) has meanwhile asked Denmark to extradite the hijackers.

The hijack-attempt took place on January 2 in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.  The crew put up a fight and burnt the vessel of the pirates down with signal flares.  The pirates jumped overboard, after which they were picked up by the Danish naval vessel Absalon that was in the neighbourhood.

Even though the Antilles is the first obvious country to try the suspects, the Netherlands is also allowed to do this in this case.  According to the national Public Prosecutor, the Netherlands is allowed to persecute piracy suspects all over the world.  Piracy is even the oldest international crime included in the Criminal Code.  However, the Netherlands has never tried such crime yet until now.

The case is also going to be one of the first criminal cases against Somali pirates worldwide.  The maximum punishment in the Netherlands for piracy is nine years imprisonment.  Their leader may even get a maximum of 12 year imprisonment.  The OM must still decide whether to try them in the court of Amsterdam or Rotterdam.

PVV-leader Geert Wilders criticized Hirsch Ballin’s decision to trial the Somalis in the Netherlands.  He is afraid that the Netherlands will never again get rid of these, according to him, ‘highly dangerous criminals’, because after they serve their time in prison, they cannot be deported.  The Netherlands has a categorical protection policy for Somalis.  “You will never get rid of them.”  There are also questions within the CDA.  According to a spokesperson of Justice, the commitment is though that pirates are deported after they have served their time; this is currently being investigated.  “But after their conviction, they will be in prison for some time, and the question of deportation is still under discussion.  More important is that they are tried.”

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported yesterday that piracy has broken all record last year. Pirates have hijacked 49 ships in 2008, held 889 passengers hostage, and fired on 46 ships; at least 11 people were killed; and 21 are still missing.  The IMB thinks that also these 21 people are dead.  The increase is blamed on the piracy in the Gulf of Aden, where according to IMB, the number of attacks has increased with 200 percent to 111 in 2008.  The number of attacks worldwide increased with 11 percent to 293.

(Source: National newspaper Amigoe)

January 17, 2009