jurisdictional nightmare of piracy

[ADNAAN]

The only country willing to prosecute pirates is Kenya and they are facing a jurisdictional nightmare (see the article below). But Kenya is also the only country that has interest in somali territorial waters!!

 

Both the US and the EU have signed a secret memorandum of understanding with kenya:

 

He is convinced there is no legal basis for what is going on. "We're going to challenge the Kenyan court's authority," he says. "You cannot sign secret agreements. They have to show us these treaties."

 

British officials in Nairobi reject the term "secret" and say it is standard for government agreements to remain confidential. The UK insists that its human rights obligations to the prisoners have been met and that they will not face the death penalty.

 

Why does it have to be secret?

 

 

Read more

 

 

The US had one suspected Somali pirate aboard their ship for seven months, unsure what to do with him.

He could have been a fisherman for all they know.

[Abu-Salman]

Much more worrying is that darker conclusions may await them in notoriously sub-standards French jails (where suicides are part of the routine and they will, moreover, face total isolation due to langage barriers).

 

Where are the elders, leaders and religious authorities to warn those youths of such bleak outcomes?

 

Would we be allowed to visit the brothers in Paris ("prison La sante")?

 

 

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Soon, 15 Somali pirates in French prisons (Le Figaro)

 

 

Placed in solitary and scattered in several jails, they run twenty years' imprisonment.

 

The three Somalis captured during the operation to release hostages Tanit the boat last Friday in the Gulf of Aden could be transferred to France. Reportedly, the interregional specialized court (JIRSA) Rennes Sunday opened a preliminary investigation for "kidnapping resulting in death." They will therefore share the fate of the other twelve suspected pirates currently held in French jails.

 

On 18 April 2008, six Somalis suspected of being involved in the hostage taking of the luxury yacht Le Ponant were transferred to France. This procedure aimed hijacking was a first record.

 

Indicted JIRSA to Paris for "misuse of vessel", "kidnapping, criminal association in organized gang", "theft and related recels demand a ransom," the suspects were dispersed and placed in solitary in several jails, including those of Health and Bois-d'Arcy.

 

"Not having the opportunity to speak with someone speaking their langage, except when the lawyer meets with a translator, they are plunged into a deep depression, notes David Reingewirtz Me, codefender with Gustave de Charvet, of Mohamed Said Hote, former accountant of 50 years suffering from a severe disease which may kill him. Our client, like others, was captured in Somali territory on board a 4 x 4, which does not prove their involvement in the hostage taking of the Ponant. "

 

 

Petition for nullity rejected

 

Whereas France had no authority to intervene in Somalia, no evidence on the inquiry does not appear in the proceedings and that the five days of "custody" of suspects on board a frigate of the Navy took place "outside the law," lawyers have filed a petition for nullity in October. It was rejected by the board of education last week. The detention of suspected pirates was extended for six months, the instruction to be completed in April 2010.

 

Last September, six other pirates intercepted during the taking of hostages on the Carré d'As yacht suffered the same fate. They also expect in isolation a bleak future: facing up to twenty years' imprisonment by the "court d'assises". they know that a return to their country would be a death sentence because of the intransigence of the authorities in Mogadishu (pure nonsence! Shariah could not be applied retrospectively for some of them, and even then the issue is not automatically clear-cut in all cases, without a holistic examination of the particular circumstances etc...).

 

If the former Somali President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed had agreed to send to France for his compatriots in the affairs of the Ponant and Carré d'As, no doubt that his successor, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, will work for extradition of the three kidnappers caught on Tanit. Indeed, it has been one of the leaders of Islamic Courts who have managed to put in brackets at the end of 2006, acts of piracy. Before the raids sea does leave more beautiful.