Tag: ransom

Four South Korean Crew Still Held Pirates have released the Singapore-flagged MT Gemini and 21 crew members, although they have kept a hold of four South Korean seamen who were on the ship, pirates and maritime officials said Thursday.The MT Gemini was taken on April 30, and pirates had initially demanded $5 million for its release. There was no information on the size of the ransom."The Singaporean vessel has been released on Wednesday late after payment, but they kept the South Korean crew ... because they want six of their colleagues jailed in South Korea to be released," Mu'min Ali, a Haradhere-based pirate, told Somalia Report. "The ransom amount is not clear, as pirate groups don't like to reveal how much they got these days."The vessel was left anchored at Hobyo, he said.Nairobi-based diplomats said the vessel would shortly get underway, and that the four Koreans were taken to an unknown destination on shore.The Singapore-based owner Glory Ship Management confirmed the release in a statement."The pirates ... released 21 of the 25 crew on board but took four South Korean seamen, including the captain, ashore at the last moment despite earlier promises to release the entire all-man crew," Reuters news ...

News report that ransom has been paid - it was dropped onto the ship by a plane An Italian navy ship Saturday came to the aid of a merchant vessel released by Somali pirates after over seven months in captivity, with news reports saying a ransom was dropped from a small plane."Considering what they have lived through, the crew are well," said Gualtiero Mattesi, an admiral who also heads NATO's anti-piracy operation "Ocean Shield, speaking from the navy destroyer on the scene."Military teams today boarded the 'Rosalia D'Amato' to guarantee the safety of the crew," he said, adding that the ship was still in Somali waters but would head out once the necessary checks have been carried out.Reports that the ship with six Italians and 15 Filipinos on board had been released surfaced on Friday but were only confirmed on Saturday.Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi voiced "strong satisfaction" over the release, saying it had been "a painful experience."The 225-metre (738-foot) vessel belonging to Naples-based Perseveranza had been on its way from Brazil to Iran with a cargo of soybeans when it was seized by pirates off the coast of Oman on April 21 and taken back to Somalia."In five or six ...

Chief engineer of the MV Blida has vowed never to go to sea again Mohamed Ait Ramdane's ordeal did not end when a ransom fell from the sky and the pirates left the ship. After 31 years as a sailor, the chief engineer of the MV Blida has vowed never to go to sea again.Released on November 3 with his 25 fellow crew members, the 55-year-old Algerian is a bruised man, grappling with the same trauma experienced by hundreds of other often anonymous victims of Somali piracy.Held hostage for 10 months, the crew of 17 Algerians, six Ukrainians, two Filipinos, one Jordanian and one Indonesian endured death threats and were deprived of food and clean drinking water while they watched their Somali captors get drunk."At the beginning, we were afraid we would be killed. After that, they killed us every day psychologically," said Ramdane, who talked falteringly about his ordeal from his family home in Hadjout, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Algiers."The Somali pirates were on board a Tunisian ship, Hannibal, equipped with three motor boats," he explained.Between 20 and 30 heavily armed pirates then ascended the Blida, cutting the radio and radar as they arrived.Like Ramdane, fellow sailor ...

With the case of MV Iceberg proving problematic, ship owners are warned against paying ransoms Shipping firms must stop giving in to pirates and handing over ransoms if they want to stamp out hijackings along the Somali coastline, claims a top defence adviser.Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a senior strategic and military adviser, told 7DAYS during a visit to Dubai that he blamed vessel owners for the increasing acts of piracy in Somalia, as many insist on sailors using the Gulf of Aden because it is a cheaper and quicker route."In a bid to minimise costs and maximise profits, a number of ships are taking the risk by using routes that are prone to piracy. Safer routes such as the Cape of Good Hope are considered costly and time consuming," said Parry, a former British naval officer. Parry said ship owners have a responsibility to protect their crew, vessels and cargo and must look at ways to prevent hijackings - paying a ransom should be a last resort, he said."Ransom payments are the key factor in the escalation of acts of piracy along the Somali coast," added Parry."By refusing to pay ransoms to the hijackers, it will become unattractive for Somalis ...

To extract a higher ransom payment and to find information about the ship's fuel reserve A band of pirates tortured the crew of a German tanker off the coast of Somalia to extract a higher ransom payment and to find information about the ship's fuel reserves, according to a federal court filing.The revelation appears in a filing by the government explaining why it believes piracy charges against Mohammad Saaili Shibin should not be dismissed. Prosecutors say Shibin is the highest-ranking pirate the U.S. has ever captured and that he acted as a land-based negotiator who also researched victims' online to determine their worth and secure hefty ransoms. Shibin's attorney contends the piracy charge should be dismissed because he didn't commit robbery at sea.Shibin has been charged with a litany of crimes, including hostage taking, for his roles in the May 2010 hijacking of the Marida Marguerite as well as the February hijacking of the yacht Quest, where all four Americans on board were killed.In a filing Tuesday, prosecutors said the piracy charge should stick because the robbery of the Marida Marguerite continued after it was taken to Somalia, where the ship and its mostly Indian crew were held until January. ...

Hostage talks his story - held for 33 days! "At the moment of the attack there were 78 people onboard and 1 million barrels of crude oil. I cannot imagine what could have happened if we did not surrender to the pirates. Human lives endangered and disastrous pollution; they had over 100kg of C4 explosive in one of the speed boats."Piracy off the coast of Somalia is big business but the increased production of oil in the Gulf of Guinea has encouraged more acts of piracy in the region during 2011.The role of the seafarer, however, has not changed much in the task of transporting goods across the sea lanes of the world. The scourge of piracy, thought to have faded in the pages of history, has seen resurgence that puts the lives of innocent sailors at risk. As greater international effort is called for to stem the spread of piracy, it is acknowledged that long-term economics will suffer, but in the short-term, it is the seafaring community that literally 'pays the price'.For 33 days he was held in the depth of the jungle not knowing whether he would see out each day as it came. As an officer of ...

For the release of MV Iceberg that they hijacked last year Somali pirates have demanded a ransom payment of millions of dollars for the release of a UAE-owned vessel that they hijacked last year, Press TV reported.The pirates are said to be demanding $8 million in ransom to free MV Iceberg 1 cargo ship and its 24 crew members. They have warned that hostages would be killed if ransom demands were not met soon.Somali pirates seized MV Iceberg 1 some 10 nautical miles off the port of Aden in Yemen on March 29, 2010. The Panama-flagged ship was bound for Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, and was carrying a mixed cargo of general mechanical equipment.The crew consists of nationals from Yemen, India, Ghana, Sudan, Pakistan and the Philippines.Meanwhile, Francis Koosom, the son of one of the sailors still languishing in captivity, launched a struggle for the release of his father and other 23 crew members of MV Iceberg 1.He pleaded with the Ghanaian government to pay the ransom to secure the release of MV Iceberg crew.Ghana's Foreign Minister Muhammed Mumuni has promised to take all the necessary efforts to ensure the release of all the MV Iceberg sailors.Attacks ...

A 37 per cent jump in two years Ransom payments paid by shipping companies to Somali pirates have reached nearly $110 million this year - a 37 per cent jump in two years - despite the increasing success of international naval forces in preventing pirate attacks.According to Rear Admiral Christian Canova of the European Naval Task Force (EUNavFor) operating off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, there were only 10 ships and 247 seafarers being held hostage in mid October compared with double the number of vessels a year ago.The International Maritime Bureau has confirmed the increasing success of the navy saying that of the 199 attacks on vessels in the first nine months of this year, only 24 had been successful."Somali pirates are finding it harder to hijack ships and get the ransom they ask for," said IMB director Captain Pottengal Mukundan. 
But the result is that pirates are demanding ever higher ransom payments for the seafarers they capture.Rear Admiral Canova also told the European Parliament that the failure to agree on a set policy on Somali pirates was hampering future operations. He cited the example of the fact that EUNavFor surveillance aircraft had identified pirate ...

Ship and its 23 hostages are still being held captive for an $8 million ransom payment After media outlets just reported the release of the Dubai-based MV Iceberg 1 on Tuesday after being held by pirates for 19 months, Somalia Report announced that the ship and its 23 hostages are still being held captive for an $8 million ransom payment.The 4,500-ton Iceberg 1 owned by Azal Shipping Company was announced released on Tuesday when AP subsequently retracted their story. Then Somalia Report broke disappointing news. A spokesman of the pirate group holding the Iceberg 1 and crew told Somalia Report that they are still aboard the vessel in the Garacad area, and have not received a ransom payment. The pirate, called Adan, said that they would not release the vessel without their ransom demand.The Panamanian-flagged cargo ship was hijacked by Somali pirates on March 29th 2010 while sailing in the Gulf of Aden en route for the Jebel Ali Port carrying mechanical instruments.So far, the Iceberg 1 remains the longest-held ship by pirates.Source: Maritime Executive

A pirate has often Europe is not doing enough to fight back against Somali pirates and the tragedy is being felt at both a human and economic level. The European Union should fight piracy by all necessary means. The current approach to piracy is insufficient. It is time for a more effective approach to a rapidly growing problem. Last week, Georgios Koumoutsakos MEP and I organised a hearing on piracy in the European Parliament. Speakers from the Polish EU-Presidency, the International Maritime Organisation, the European External Action Service, the European Naval Force Somalia and the European Communities Ship-owners´ Association underlined that the problem of piracy is not solved - but is, in fact, growing.In the first nine months of 2011, as many ships and seafarers were hijacked near Somalia as throughout the whole year of 2010. And while the real "hunting season" has yet to begin this year, the monsoon has just ended. Not only are the coastal waters off Somalia dangerous, but the entire Indian Ocean between India and Mozambique is a haven for thousands of pirates.The average time to reach agreement on a ransom is one year. And the ransom price has risen sharply, from several million United ...