Attacks as Spanish judge questions suspected Somali pirates

A Spanish judge has cross-examined two suspected Somali pirates who were flown to Madrid from East Africa, but new pirate attacks have taken place in the Indian Ocean patrolled by EU ships. Abdou Willy told National Court judge Baltasar Garzon that he was under 18 years old, and was taken to a hospital where his age would be investigated. If he turns out to be as young as he says, his case would he handed over to a court dealing with minors, the sources said. The other suspect, Raagegeesey, faced questioning at a hospital where he was being treated for a bullet wound after Spanish marines fired at him while he was being captured. Raagegeesey refused to answer the questions of Garzon, who was being assisted by a Somali interpreter. The two belong to a group of 13 pirates who had been holding the Spanish fishing vessel Alakrana. Abdou Willy and Raagegeesey were captured by a Spanish frigate participating in the European Union’s anti-piracy Operation Atalanta after they left the trawler on board a skiff two days after the hijacking.
Raagegeesey was fired at by Spanish marines as they were capturing him. The Spanish government says the soldiers were responding to a threatening gesture made by the Somali, who sustained a slight injury. Garzon ordered the two to be brought to Spain and to be remanded in custody. A French vessel took them to a French military base in Djibouti, where a Spanish air force plane picked them up. The arrest of the two pirates was expected to complicate the ongoing negotiations between the pirates and the owner of the Alakrana, who is being assisted by the Spanish ambassador to Kenya and experts from the secret service CNI. The pirates said they would not release the 36 crew members of the Alakrana before their companions are released.
Another Spanish fishing vessel, MS Playa de Bakio, was released in April 2008 after being held by pirates for a week. The CNI paid a ransom of $1.2 million which is being reimbursed by the company owning the vessel, the daily El Pais reported. This time, the pirates were expected to demand a higher ransom given that the Alakrana is a newer vessel with a bigger crew than the Playa de Bakio. Environment Minister Elena Espinosa, however, said the government did not intend to pay a ransom for the Alakrana. The crew of the Alakrana includes 16 Spaniards, eight Indonesians as well as Malaysian, Senegalese, Ghanaian, Ivory Coast and Seychelles nationals. The trawler is stationed off the Somali port of Haradhere.
Meanwhile, a Singapore-flagged cargo ship was been hijacked in the Indian Ocean, the European Union Naval Force said. “During the early morning of October 15, 2009, a Singapore-flagged container ship, Kota Wajar, was hijacked in the Indian Ocean by pirates, some 300 nautical miles north of the Seychelles,” EU NAVOR said in a statement issued by its headquarters in Northwood, Britain. The Pacific International Lines vessel was en route to Mombasa. The EU’s anti-piracy mission sent an aircraft to investigate. The number of crew on board the vessel is still unclear. The attack took place in unguarded waters south of a marine security corridor in the Gulf of Aden that has been set up by NATO the EU and other partners. EU NAVFOR said it had identified but later released suspect pirates operating near the Seychelles Islands.  According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), 294 piracy-related incidents were reported in the first three quarters of 2009, surpassing the total number reported in 2008. Of these 294 attacks, 97 took place in Somalia’s Gulf of Aden and a further 47 off the rest of the Somali coast, an IMB report published in late September said.