Tag: ransom

As piracy attacks dwindle, ransom demands rise

Somali pirates free Greek oil tanker

EUNAVFOR Assists Another Tanker After Release From Armed Somali Pirates

MV Orna, UAE-Owned Ship Hijacked By Somali Pirates, Freed After 2 Years

Somali pirates have been holding the hijacked ship MV Orna for nearly two years Somali pirates who have been holding a hijacked ship for nearly two years killed a Syrian hostage crew member and wounded another to protest delayed ransom payment, a pirate leader said.This is believed to be the first time Somali pirates have killed a hostage because of a delay in ransom.Hassan Abdi, a pirate commander in Haradhere town, a key pirate center, said Friday that the killing on Wednesday was a message to the owners of the ship MV Orna that was hijacked off Seychelles in 2010."The killing was a message to the owners of the ship who paid no heed to our ransom demands," Abdi said by telephone."More killings will follow if they continue to lie to us - we have lost patience with them. Two years is enough," he said angrily.The MV Orna is a Panama-flagged, bulk cargo vessel owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates.The pirates operating along the Somali coastline of the Indian Ocean were once were believed to be disgruntled and financially motivated Somali fishermen, angry that international trawlers were illegally fishing Somalia's waters. But now criminal gangs are dominating ...

Ransom insurance was becoming a necessity in Australia's international trade A ransom up to $4 million was paid through Australian companies and insurers to Somali pirates who seized a bulk carrier in 2008.Many shipping firms are employing armed guards and considering longer, more expensive voyages to avoid pirate hot spots east of Africa.The ransom was paid to recover an Australian cargo of 50,000 tonnes of lead and zinc aboard the Panama-flagged container ship Stella Maris.The carrier, with a crew of 20 Filipinos, was seized by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden in June 2008, Australian Shipping chief executive Llew Russell said.Ransom insurance was becoming a necessity in Australia's international trade, 99 per cent of which travelled via sea, Mr Russell said."You've got to pay the ransom," he said.If companies refused to negotiate ransoms, crews would not be willing to ply the seas off Somalia or other hot spots, including the Strait of Malacca.Piracy is costing the global economy $7 billion a year.Some Australian shippers were so wary of running the gauntlet off Somalia, as they head towards the Suez Canal, they were now rounding the Cape of Good Hope at an extra cost of $2 million per container ship ...

US jails pirate who negotiated ransom

While the latest footage purportedly showing seven Pakistanis among 22 sailors held hostage by Somali pirates for ransom might have upset the families who have been waiting for their release for the past 18 months, the authorities engaged in the process of getting them released against ransom payment were on Monday confident about 'good news' within the next few days.

Stephen Collett reveals how he negotiated the release of the Rachel and Paul Chandler When Rachel Chandler bade her brother farewell before her fateful Indian Ocean yacht trip with her husband Paul, he did his best to laugh his worries off. Dont get caught by Somali pirates, he joked. Or well have to ransom you out.Just six weeks later, the gag turned very sour for all concerned: Paul and Rachel were kidnapped as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania, spending the next 13 months in captivity on the Somali mainland. Meanwhile it fell to brother Stephen Collett to take on the fiendishly difficult task of negotiating, raising and paying the ransom that finally bought their freedom. As well as leaving him not much change out of 500,000, it cost him 13 months of his life, and very nearly his marriage as well.Which makes it all the remarkable, then, that nearly three years on, Stephen has no worries about waving the pair off on their travels once more. For next month, despite having suffered an ordeal that would make most sailors never leave dry land again, Paul and Rachel will cast off from the Devon port of Dartmouth in their ...

Slowly and subtly political policies sometimes change, and it is necessary to keep a very sharp antenna tuned to the vibrations that emanate from the political classes, lest one be caught unawares.It was earlier this year, at the conference hosted by the British Government in London to discuss the various problems of Somalia, that the matter of ransoms was first obliquely touched on. Perhaps this had been prefaced by various noises hostile to ransom payment coming from Washington, but the inference has clearly been that the payment of ransoms to pirates for the return of captured ships has been merely fuelling the continuance of the problem, in the view of some officials.The message from the London conference was largely seen to be one of disapproval of the payment of ransoms, one that caused a certain amount of dismay in the maritime world, not least in those countries whose nationals have formed the largest part of the hostage "community". There is now concern that a task force on ransoms recently formed may be undertaking its work with the aim of making the payment of ransoms, if not illegal, at least more difficult, and the welfare of hostages thus put at risk ...