- Title: KENYA: Kenya security boards French Naval Frigate "Nivose", collects evidence
- Date: 23rd April 2009
- Summary: VARIOUS OF SUSPECTED PIRATES LEAVING SHIP AND ESCORTED BY ARMED POLICE OFFICERS POLICE CARS LEAVING PORT WITH SUSPECTS ONBOARD
- Embargoed: 8th May 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Kenya
- Country: Kenya
- Reuters ID: LVA10KRBMRBUL3PXOW8M6HU5WPHU
- Story Text: Speed boat and guns taken by Kenya police force in Mombasa as evidence against suspected pirates.
France handed over 11 suspected Somali pirates seized in a naval raid to Kenyan authorities on Wednesday (April 22), as Europe ramps up its mission to fight the wave of attacks on shipping in the waters off East Africa.
Somali gangs in small boats are challenging the world's military powers with ever more daring strikes along major trade routes, expanding their operations towards the coast of Kenya and the Seychelles islands.
Kenya police confiscating a speed boat and various assorted guns that will be used as evidence once the suspected pirates are taken to court.
"Today we are here on the French navy ship to receive 11 pirates who were arrested at the high seas and today they have arrived here and now we are in the process of taking them over for investigations purpose," Kenya Coast Criminal Investigations Officer Samson Wandera said.
After falling sharply early this year, the number of attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean has more than doubled. But most of the attacks are not successful as the ships manage to escape.
"We here these people were arrested about 600 nautical miles from Mombasa, 600 km. The ship which was attacked was known as Safmarine, it was coming from Dar Es Salaam going to Dubai but somewhere in between there it was attacked, but managed to escape the arrest," Wandera added.
Known as "Operation Atalanta", the European Union's mission patrols the area with aircraft and vessels. French forces taking part in the operation captured the 11 suspected pirates, their small mothership and two skiffs some 560 miles east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
There have been 18 attacks in April so far. France normally delivers the pirates to Kenya, where they will face trial as part of a new agreement with the European Union, which was signed in March.
"We have the law governing us, not that everybody brought here is jailed, they will be tried according to the evidence of the land if they are found guilty they will be jailed and if they are not they will be acquitted and yes they will be deported back to where they came from," Wandera said as the suspects were loaded into a waiting police car.
Pirates from lawless Somalia, some of whom say they turned to hijacking and hostage-taking because overfishing has deprived them of their traditional livelihood, present a legal and diplomatic challenge as well as a military one.
Kenya has agreed to deal with the detainees under accords with the European Union, Britain and the United States, but it has said it cannot try all pirates.
Somalia, where Islamist militants are fighting the government, has not had an effective administration since 1991 and is unable to tackle piracy, onshore or offshore. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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