The battle against piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea may be changing.   This week Japan announced that  it would try four suspected pirates being held by the US Navy after they were captured attempting to hijack the Japanese owned tanker MV Guanabara.   Recently pirates have also been charged for their crimes in courts in South Korea, Malaysia, Germany , the Netherlands and the United States.

Japan to try suspects in pirate attack

For the last several years, Somali pirates captured by naval forces have generally been let go.  The few exceptions were when the pirates were captured by navy of the state whose ship was under attack, such as when US Navy captured pirates attacking US ships.   In most other cases, pirates, even when captured in possession of hijacked vessels while holding hostages, have simply been set free. Last month  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.

The United States had an agreement with Kenya to try pirates, but this agreement came to an end last October.   The first European trial for Somali pirates took place in the Netherlands last summer where  five Somalis were convicted of piracy and sentenced to five years in prison.

One problem in many countries is that the laws on piracy have either lapsed or remained unused.   When ten Somali pirates went on trial in Hamburg in November, it was the first piracy trial in Germany in 400 years.  Likewise, when a jury in Norfolk, VA  found five Somali men guilty of piracy, it was the first pirate conviction in the US in 200 years. The upcoming trial in Japan is only possible because of a new anti-piracy law enacted in 2009.