KENYA: British forces hand eight suspected Somali pirates over to Kenyan police in Mombasa

Record ID: 361837

  • Title: KENYA: British forces hand eight suspected Somali pirates over to Kenyan police in Mombasa
  • Date: 19th November 2008
  • Summary: (BN13) MOMBASA, KENYA (NOVEMBER 18, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLICE STATION EXTERIORS VARIOUS OF CAPTURED PIRATES INSIDE POLICE CELL COAST PROVINCIAL POLICE OFFICER, KINGORI MWANGI WALKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) COAST PROVINCIAL POLICE OFFICER, KINGORI MWANGI SAYING: "We have in our custody eight pirates, who were arrested while committing piracy and they wi
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2008 12:00
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  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVAEUFP87SAG278NRTQQWRBFWTD
  • Story Text: Eight suspected Somali pirates were handed over to Kenyan police on Tuesday (November 18) by the British Navy.
    The pirates were apprehended by crew members on the HMS Cumberland a week earlier (November 11) after a gunfight which left two pirates dead.
    Video showed the pirates sitting in a cell ahead of their court appearance on Wednesday (November 19).
    Kenyan Coast Provincial police offer, Kingori Mwangi confirmed the arrest.

    "We have in our custody eight pirates, who were arrested while committing piracy and they will be taken to court tomorrow. We also have in our custody, the firearms - AK-47's seven of them, pistols and missile launchers that they were using," he said to reporters.
    A Saudi supertanker seized by pirates with a 100 million U.S. dollar oil cargo, the world's biggest ship hijacking, reached Somalia on Tuesday, and another ship was captured in the perilous waters off the lawless state.
    The U.S. navy said pirates had transported the Sirius Star -- seized 450 nautical miles southeast off Kenya at the weekend in the boldest strike to date by Somali pirates -- to Haradheere port half-way up the Horn of Africa nation's long coastline.
    Vela, the shipping arm of Saudi Arabia's Aramco oil company, said the 25 crew members were believed to be safe -- they are from Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia -- and their safety was the top priority.
    Increasingly brazen pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters off Somalia has driven up insurance costs, forced some ships to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and secured millions of dollars in ransoms.
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