01 June 2009
Countries Victimized by Pirates Pursue Legal Cases
International cooperation is aiding prosecutions
Washington — They are not the swashbuckling pirates from the popular movie Pirates of the Caribbean. There is no appealing Johnny Depp actor leading these bands of marauders.
Today’s real pirates are equipped with heavy firepower — rocket-propelled grenades that pierce ship hulls — and the latest in high technology, from global positioning devices to satellite telephones. Some are adept at jamming radio frequencies to prevent victims’ calls for help.
During the first quarter of 2009, pirate attacks off Africa doubled over the same period in 2008, as measured by the International Maritime Bureau. Pirate activity impedes humanitarian food deliveries to Africa and disrupts trade routes connecting Europe, Asia and Africa. Pirates have killed or taken hostage crew members, terrorized tourists and demanded ransoms of millions of dollars for cargos.
President Obama wants to stem the tide: “We’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks.” Such cooperation helped reduce piracy in Asia, where a concerted effort by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia — with U.S.-provided equipment and training — has been under way in the Strait of Malacca.
Off Somalia, pirates are becoming more brazen. Where once they preyed on unarmed civilian vessels, they recently attacked a ship contracted by the U.S. Navy. It had a military security team onboard that drove off the pirates.
But the cost to pirates is rising, too. In April, U.S. Navy commandos killed three pirates who attacked a U.S.-flagged ship, and a French military raid on a French ship killed two more pirates as well as one hostage.
The international community has come together in various ways. The United Nations passed four resolutions. The United States and its international partners in January 2009 formed the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia. Twenty-eight nations and six international organizations are participating.
NATO and the European Union have been escorting World Food Programme vessels. The U.S. Navy established a joint task force with nearly two dozen American and European naval ships. Other nations — Japan, Russia, South Korea, India and China — have dispatched ships. But patrols trying to monitor 3,000 kilometers of water and tens of thousands of ships are hampered by distance and speed.
PIRATES FACE LEGAL RECKONING
Maritime piracy is a universal crime according to international laws such as the 1958 Convention of the High Seas and the 1982 Law of the Seas Convention. But bringing captured pirates to justice is not an easy process.
The EU, United Kingdom and United States have signed agreements allowing Kenyan courts to try suspects, and two sets of pirates, intercepted by EU patrols, have been sent to Kenya. Naval War College professor Derek Reveron said Kenya demonstrates that “pirates can be freely prosecuted.”
But according to Johns Hopkins University professor Ruth Wedgwood, Kenya doesn’t have the legal capacity to handle all the cases. More than 130 pirates were sent to Kenya in the first half of 2009.
Other nations’ legal systems are involved. Accused pirates await trial in France. Five Somali suspects went on trial in May in the Netherlands for attempting to hijack a freighter in the Gulf of Aden in January. Somali pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse has been indicted in New York on 10 counts stemming from the hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on April 8.
Reveron said some countries are reluctant to prosecute due to concern that pirates may claim asylum “due to dismal conditions in Somalia.” Other countries, he said, may be reticent to send suspects to certain countries due to human rights concerns or fair-trial issues.
Those that do prosecute are hampered by access to credible witnesses, especially when key witnesses are transient merchant mariners. Proving a criminal case, Wedgwood said, requires “extremely well-calibrated proof.”
Still, according to Charles Darr, an attorney with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of Maritime and International Law, the international legal environment for going after pirates “is as robust as you could hope for,” despite the fact that some countries may be hampered by inadequate domestic legislation or by insufficient political-military guidance given to naval patrols. He said it makes sense for countries victimized by pirates to prosecute, but the countries must have sufficient legal capacity.
Wedgwood said the U.S. Congress should amend American criminal law so that pirates attacking anywhere — not just on the high seas, but in territorial waters, exclusive economic zones and international straits — could be sent to the United States for prosecution.
Mechanisms for detaining and charging pirates are increasingly being used, especially the International Convention Against Hostage Taking (being applied in the Muse case) and U.N. Resolution 1851 authorizing naval assets to take all necessary means to stop piracy in Somalia territorial waters and — with government permission — to pursue pirates ashore.
Legal processes may be inadequate in some countries but are ratcheting up to meet the need. “The problem … has caused closer examination of what is required to prosecute pirates and what is in the realm of the possible,” Darr said.
For more information about U.S. policy, see “United States Expands Fight Against Pirates,” “Legal Experts Take Action to Prosecute Pirates” and “Kenya Accepts Seven Alleged Pirates.”
