The Netherlands aims to bring five Somali pirates who recently attacked the cargo ship Samanyulo in the Gulf of Aden to trial. That would involve calling upon an article in the Dutch criminal code which has never been used before, the public procecutions office told Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
On January 2, the crew of the Dutch-Antilles vessel had managed to foil an attack by firing flares at the small pirate vessel which then caught fire. The pirates jumped overboard and were later picked up by the Danish navy. Now the Netherlands has asked Denmark to extradite the pirates to bring them to justice.
Pirate law
Never before has anyone in the Netherlands been tried for piracy, RNW reports. This means that the country might soon see article 381 of the criminal code, which outlaws piracy, being put to use for the first time. According to this article, the captain of a pirate ship can be sentenced to up to 12 years, while crewmembers can receive up to nine years.
Wim de Bruin, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office, believes the Somali pirates will be able to be tried based on this law. "This is about piracy and that is illegal in our criminal justice system. Because the merchant ship was sailing under a Netherlands Antilles flag, that means that the Netherlands can start preparing a case for trial," Bruin says.
Red tape
With a total of 111 attacks and 42 hijacked ships in 2008, the area along the Somali coast has seen a 200 per cent rise in piracy compared to the year before. Yet few countries are prepared to take the pirates to court, as there is a lot of legal red tape involved. Only France captured and imprisoned 12 pirates last year. The Danish navy released a group of pirates last year as the case fell outside of their legal jurisdiction. The British navy handed a number of Kenyan pirates to Kenya, which had promised to charge them.
Now the Netherlands will proceed to try the pirates, but can the crew of the ship which was attacked also expect to be charged, for firing the flares? Under common law, ships that are attacked on the open seas have the right to defend themselves as long as they do not use excessive violence. A Dutch judge could determine whether firing flares at another ship can be deemed acceptable.
The crew has an obligation to save the pirates after they had jumped overboard, says Wim de Bruin. "If there had been no one else in the area, then the Samanyulo would have had to help anyone drowning in the water. This situation saw the involvement of both the attacked merchant ship and a Danish marine helicopter which fired several warning shots."
Denmark is expected to hand the pirates over to the Netherlands soon. The question remains whether the pirates can be sent back to Somalia after they have served their time in the Netherlands, should they indeed be sentenced.
