Suspected Somali Pirate Caught in Salzburg Police Net
A SUSPECTED pirate alleged to have been involved in the capture of two German ships off the Somali coast in 2010 and 2011 has been arrested in Salzburg. The man apparently wanted to seek asylum there. Among other things, the 24-year-old is accused of "extortionate robbery", reports the Austrian newspaper, Kronen Zeitung.
According to the Salzburg Regional Court, after his arrest on 12 February, the young Somali sat in transfer jail for ten days in the Salzburg prison in Puch near Hallein. On February 22, he was extradited from Salzburg to Germany. His arrest was due to a European arrest warrant of the prosecutor Osnabrück (Lower Saxony) after a positive DNA reconciliation.
Cargo Ship Hijacked
The suspect, who was 16 years old at the time of the crime, is accused of blackmail, attack on maritime traffic as well as gang-related and commercial extortion, as a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Osnabrück told the "Salzburger Nachrichten". The accused would have been a member of a heavily armed group. The pirates, on December 27, 2010, had captured the Antigua & Barbuda-flagged, German general cargo ship "EMS River", released the freighter and the eight-man crew on March 1, 2011 after payment of three million US dollars ransom (around 2.6 million euros).
The EMS River had been hijacked using the tanker, MT Motivator, as a mothership for the pirate action group (PAG), which had made an attempted hijacked earlier that day off the Omani coast.
$3.5 Million Ransom Blackmailed
The second hijack took place on April 8, 2011. The Somali pirates boarded the Antigua & Barbuda-flagged, German general cargo ship "Susan K". Crew locked themselves in the citadel and requested assistance. Pirates managed to get access into the citadel taking all crew hostage, kidnapping and holding the ten-member crew until 16 June 2011. After paying a ransom of 3.5 US million dollars (about 3 million euros), the crew was released.
Both incidents ended bloodlessly.
The affected shipping companies are based in Lower Saxony, which is why the public prosecutor Osnabrück is responsible.
Source: Kronen Zeitung
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