ISF hits lack of clear-cut guidelines in prosecuting piracy

International Shipping Federation (ISF) president Spyros Polemis said that the lack of legal framework is hampering prosecution of pirates arrested by the multinational naval force operating in the pirate infested waters of the Gulf of Aden and other parts of the Indian Ocean.

Polemis, in his speech during the 11th Lloyd’s Ships Management Conference held in Manila recently, stressed that while hundreds of pirates have been arrested in the ongoing anti-piracy patrols, only a handful have been charged and prosecuted for their illegal activities.

“It is more easier for the chief mate or engineer of a bulker or tanker to arrested and prosecuted for failing to do his duty properly than for a pirate to be successfully prosecuted for his crime,” the ISF chief stressed.

Polemis attributes this delay to the fact that none of the governments enforcing the anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden and other pirate infested waters have clear cut guidelines on how to deal legally with the arrested sea robbers.

Another tricky question still yet to be resolved by the allied governments in the question of extradition of Somali nationals caught actively engaging in piracy.

The ISF chief said that the above-mentioned issues must be resolved immediately so that the piracy scourge is stopped once and for all.

Polemis’ concern was further highlighted by the fact that a court in Mombasa, Kenya ordered the release of nine suspected Somali pirates last Nov. 9 on the basis that Kenya could no longer try them for crimes committed outside its territory, following changes to the law under which they were being tried.

The defendants had been arrested by naval personnel in the Gulf of Aden and handed over to Kenya.

Although Kenya had an agreement with the European Union to try suspected Somali pirates detained in the Gulf of Aden by the multinational naval task force, this expired at the end of September 2010 and not yet been renewed by the time of this trial.

The ISF chief said the ruling follows the acquittal of 17 Somalis by the Mombasa court on Nov. 5.

The defendants were arrested by naval personnel in May 2009 for allegedly attacking the Amira in the Gulf of Aden.

They were freed after the court ruled that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. ?