Danish navy releases 10 Somali pirates

By Marcus Hand in Singapore - Thursday 25 September 2008

THE DANISH navy has freed 10 suspected Somali pirates who could not be brought to court in Denmark.

The Danish warship Absalon released 10 suspected on a Somali beach at 0100hrs on September 24 after being held for six days. The pirates weapons and other equipment were confiscated but there were allowed to keep personal effects.

The decision was made as it was not possible to bring the pirates to court in Denmark, but at the same time it was unwilling to hand them over to the Somali transitional government.

"It was the lesser of two evils, for the other solution, which would have made me uneasy, would have been to hand them over to a regime where they risked being tortured and killed," Defence Minister Soeren Gade told Danish television.

The warship Absalon continues to patrol the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to combat piracy in the area.
“Releasing them is sending the wrong signal to the pirates,” said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

To date this the IMB said that 60 ships had been attacked off the Somali coast and in the Gulf of Aden, with 24 vessels hijacked, of which 13 are currently held with over 300 crew taken hostage.