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| Europe |
| Somali pirates embrace capture as route to Europe |
| 2009-05-19 |
| Ya really can't make this shit up... Somali pirates might be allowing themselves to be deliberately captured in order to take advantage of European asylum laws, Dutch legal experts have warned. Pirates captured after attacking a Dutch vessel have gone on trial in the liberal Netherlands and at least two of them have declared their intention to stay on as residents. Geert-Jan Knoops, an international criminal law attorney and professor at the Royal University of Utrecht, has suggested that the Dutch trial might encourage pirates to surrender just in order to seek a better life in Western countries. "These trials may trigger other pirates to let themselves be arrested on purpose," he told the Volkskrant newspaper. "The Dutch Justice department must be cautious. I cannot imagine the five alleged pirates would voluntarily return to Somalia after their conviction." So return them involuntarily. Shoot them out of a cannon or something... The five Somali pirates were arrested off the coast of Africa in January by Danish marines after attacking the Samanyulo, a Dutch-flagged cargo ship. But since Somalia has a record of international human rights violations it will be almost impossible to deport the men after their conviction in the Netherlands. "Life is good here," said one of the defendants, named Sayid, about his experience in a Dutch jail. "I appeal to the government not to send me back to Somalia. The people who live here respect human rights. I wish to settle here." Willem-Jan Ausma, a Dutch defence attorney who is representing another pirate, described his client's relief to be in a Western prison. "My client feels safe here. His own village is dominated by poverty and sharia [Islamic law] but here he has good food and can play football and watch television. He thinks the lavatory in his cell is fantastic," he said. Mr Ausma has told the Somali that he will be considered for a residence permit after serving his sentence, expected to be a maximum of four years in prison. "He intends to send for his wife and children as soon as he is released from prison. He knows he cannot easily be sent back to Somalia. He loves it here in the Netherlands," Mr Ausma told the NRC Handelsblad newspaper. Sure. Bring em all over... Mr Ausma has also warned that ongoing piracy trials in the Netherlands, France and the United States will encourage pirates to commit crimes, for the purpose of being captured, rather than deterring attacks on Western flagged vessels. "Anything is better than Somalia," he said. Being hung as a pirate better than Somalia? Prof Knoops has called for an international tribunal to deal with Somali pirates. "This would immediately solve a large number of problems, because there are good reasons why many countries do not wish to burn their fingers on the pirates," he said. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #5 Even better - deport him to Somalia with his client. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-05-19 22:53 |
| #4 These pirates DO learn. They are gaming the system and it pays. Sun Tzu would look at the EU approach to piracy and say, "These guys need an IEP." |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-05-19 22:53 |
| #3 Hang the lawyer as an accessory. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-05-19 17:53 |
| #2 Ah. He's a "Robin Hood" ya see.. ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — A lawyer for one of five suspected Somali pirates being prosecuted in the Netherlands described his client Monday as a modern-day Robin Hood driven by poverty to hijack ships. The Netherlands agreed to prosecute them under a 17th-century law against "sea robbery" because the Samanyulo is registered in the Dutch Antilles. Convicted pirates face a maximum sentence of nine years, while a convicted pirate ship captain can get up to 12 years. Their trial is not expected to begin until later this year. At a pretrial hearing in a heavily guarded court in Rotterdam, lawyer Willem Jan Ausma called his client, Ahmed Yusuf, a "Robin Hood." Speaking to reporters outside court, he said pirates "attack ships of rich countries to give the ransom to poor families." He later told judges there were different types of pirates operating off Somalia's coast — those who gave ransom money to organized crime gangs and others "who just go to sea in the hope of getting something more than the fish that are no longer there." Yusuf, wearing a white coat and black shirt, smiled and waved to reporters as he walked into the courtroom and sat in front of Ausma. Haroon Raza, a lawyer for another of the suspects, applied for him to be released from custody so he could return to Somalia to provide an income for his family. Judges rejected the application and all five suspects were sent back to the five Dutch jails where they are being held apart from one another. Ah, well, Haroon. Euro judge, it was worth a shot, right? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-05-19 13:19 |
| #1 See, what do you do when our PRISONS are better than their homes? Of course, the problem of capturing pirates is traditionally something that solved itself. Woe to the modern age... |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-05-19 12:53 |