Somali pirates today released the MT Polar after holding her for ten months. Details of any ransom payment are being kept quiet by official sources, but Bar Kulan is reporting the pirates received $7.7 million in ransom.
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| MT Polar (Source: EUNAVFOR) |
Last month Somalia Report interviewed two of the pirates holding the MV Polar, who said they have high hopes of replenishing their depleted coffers with the ransom cash from the vessel. Hayle Mohamed, who leads the pirate group holding the Polar, and Rage Abdi, who was a stakeholder in the Samho Dream hijacking, both said they had spent their share of the $9.5 million ransom for the supertanker on luxury cars and paying for elaborate weddings.
The Polar is a good example of the international complexity of the shipping industry. The Polar is a Chinese built, Panama-flagged, Liberian-owned (on paper), Greek managed, European and Asian crewed ship carrying Iraqi crude to a U.S. customer. It's crew is made up of 16 seamen from the Philippines, 4 from Montenegro, 3 from Greece and 1 from Romania, says Somalia Report.
According to Mohamed, the Polar owners offered to pay $10 million in ransom, but the kidnappers demanded $15 million.
The 2005-built oil products tanker is owned by the Athens-based Herculito Maritime Limited and she is managed by Paradise Navigation also based in Athens, Greece.
UPDATE: Somalia Report stated that heavy gunfire rang out in Hobyo, an ancient harbor city in Somalia's Mudug region, on Saturday morning after two suspected rival pirate groups fell out over ransom money.
Reliable sources said the groups, which had been holding captive the MT Polar, differed over how to share a whooping US$ 7.7 million reportedly paid as the ransom money to secure the release of the merchant's vessel.
One of the groups' leaders Raage Abdi says the fighting was occasioned by a misunderstanding on how to share the money paid by the ship owner on Friday. The other group is reportedly led by Mohamed Raanbow.
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