Somali pirates beat Indian crew of ship: captain

By Celestine Achieng

MOMBASA (Reuters) – The captain of an Indian vessel said on
Tuesday his crew was beaten and starved during a six-day
hostage ordeal, in the first testimony from a prosecution
witness in the trial of 10 suspected Somali pirates.

Acting on a report of an attempted attack, U.S. Navy
sailors seized a ship last month near Mogadishu which had 10
suspected Somali pirates and 16 Indian crew members on board.

The suspects were handed over to Kenyan authorities late in
January and charged in Kenya with hijacking the ship,
threatening the lives of crew members and demanding a $450,000
ransom.

As the prosecution opened its case, Captain Akbar Ali
Suleiman told a Mombasa court his crew were mistreated and
threatened while being held between January 16-21.

“We went without food for four days, they beat us up every
time we tried to free ourselves and save our lives,” Suleiman
said during cross-examination. “They were asking for $450,000
and satellite phones which we did not have.”

After identifying the 10 suspects as the same gunmen who
held him and the ship hostage, he said the pirates tried in
vain to hijack three more ships using his vessel during that
period.

Prosecutors presented an assortment of weapons that
included three AK-47s, two anti-aircraft missiles and a
revolver as evidence against the 10 men.

Elsewhere, in the southern port of Kismayo, nearly 400 km
(250 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, four people were
killed and seven wounded when militia loyal to the Juba Valley
Alliance (JVA) faction that controls the port town clashed with
a splinter group. Civilians were among the dead.

“Four people died this morning and seven were wounded,” JVA
spokesman Bile Abdulle said. “I believe the fighting between
the two militias was caused by revenge.”

Somalia’s waters have become among the most dangerous in
the world since warlords ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad
Barre in 1991. Typically, armed pirates use speedboats to
attack and board ships, including oil tankers.

The dozens of hijackings and attempted seizures in the
waters off Somalia have shaken merchant shipping, which relies
heavily on international trade routes that snake down Somalia’s
coastline, the longest in any African country.

The court ruled a week ago that it could hear the case,
following an injunction by the defense which questioned its
jurisdiction over the matter, arguing that the suspects were
seized in international waters.

The suspects face a possible life sentence if convicted.