Photo: english.alshahid.net

Last week the  Danish warship Esbern Snare captured a hijacked fishing vessel and freed two Yemeni hostages.  In addition to 16 pirates aboard the ship, the Danes  found rocket launchers, assault rifles, ammunition, large quantities of fuel and two skiffs.

The pirates were released due to a lack of evidence.  I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

Warship captures Somali pirates

The ship was stolen, two of its remaining crew members were being held hostage.   The ship was loaded with weapons and fuel.  And yet it was “determined there were no sufficient grounds to prosecute the suspected Somali pirates, who were brought back to land early on Sunday.”

As of yesterday there were at least 49 vessels and 815 sailors being held hostage by Somali pirates, yet being in possession of a stolen fishing vessel, holding two of  its crew hostage, while in the possession of  significant quantities of arms and fuel, is not sufficient grounds  for prosecution.

Update on Pirate Seized Vessels and Crews

As reported by Lloyd’s List, representatives of the shipping community were not pleased by the latest round of “catch and release.”

Intertanko general counsel Michele White said naval forces wrongly interpreted international piracy laws.

Lack of political will rather than any legal framework was behind the failure to prosecute as many as 80% of all pirates that naval forces caught in the the waters off Somalia, she said.

“Any state may prosecute pirates captured by their warships. The often rehearsed excuse that international law requires pirates to be caught in the act of an attack as a condition for prosecution has no basis in international law,” Ms White said in a letter to Lloyd’s List.

“The reason the pirates, caught with arms on board hijacked vessels being used as a pirate motherships, were taken back to Somalia and released has to do with lack of political will, not lack of legal framework to prosecute.”