Somali pirates sentenced to death

Justice, Yemen-style, and a first rude wake-up call to pirates, has been served on six Somalis – the death sentence. The world’s maritime nations have hitherto been at odds as to how best deal with the get-rich-quickscourge by Somali and other bandits. Yemen has clearly decided enough is enough. From a Yemeni perspective, this harshest of pronouncements is all the more fitting given the attack was not only aimed at a Yemeni vessel but its crew of nationals. The conviction relates to piracy and hijacking charges stemming from the April 2009 attack on the oil tanker, Qana. She had sailed from the southeast port of Al-Mukalla when attacked in April 2009, with two crew members killed, four injured and one missing. Yemen’s specialised penal court also ruled that the convicted (also six Somalis jailed for 10 years each) pay US$2 million – considerably less than ransoms paid for many hijacked ships nowadays – in compensation to the Aden Oil Refinery, for compensation to victims’ families. Captain Roy Martin, 14 years at sea with Safmarine and in command of chartered vessels for two of those, says the Yemeni sentence “sends out the right message” and is more likely to act as a serious deterrent than the rather trifling court sentences handed down to date. “This is long overdue, a positive step,” he said. Martin says were he in command of a vessel in Indian Ocean waters these days, he would have “absolute concern” for the well-being of the vessel and its crew. “Somali pirates have ventured way past Madagascar toward South African territorial waters and despite increasing International Maritime Organisation powers to repel them, this is not a military problem but one requiring policing; we are dealing with robbers.” Calls to South Africa to become involved in the fight against piracy have been ignored.