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The Prosecution of a Somali Pirate

Comprehensive Information on Complex Crises

Excerpted from 08 May 2012

This document provides the In Focus excerpt from the MB Weekly 08 May 2012. The In Focus section of the weekly gives our readership a more detailed reporting of an event or topic of particular relevance in the Mediterranean Basin and other regions of interest. In Focus pieces provide hyperlinks to source material highlighted and underlined in the text. For more information on the topics below or other issues pertaining to the region, please contact the members of the Med Basin Team, or visit our website at www.cimicweb.org.

In Focus: The Prosecution of a Somali Pirate By Britta Rinehard Somali Mohammad Saaili Shibin, the lead negotiator for the pirates on the MV Marida Marguerite and the yacht Quest was convicted after a two-week trial on 15 counts of piracy-related charges in a US federal court on 27 April. These charges included hostage taking, kidnapping and conspiracy relating to involvement in the MV Marida Marguerite and the SV Quest. According to US attorney Neil MacBride, Shibins conviction marks the successful prosecution of the highest-ranking Somali pirate ever brought to the United States. Shibin was among an elite fraternity of pirate negotiators the vital link to any successful pirate attack. Without his skillfull negotiation, there would be no ransom, remarked MacBride. His sentencing is scheduled for 13 August 2012, where he could face life in prison, according to the Chicago Press Release Services. Pirating of the MV Marida Marguerite The MV Marida Marguerite, a Marshall Islands-flagged, German-owned chemical tanker, was en route from Mumbai to the Suez Canal on 08 May 2010, when pirate skiffs approached the ship and fired automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades before boarding the tanker. The pirates hijacked the ship and its crew 120 miles off the coast of Oman and forced the ships captain, Mahadeo Makane, to steer the ship towards Somalia. They anchored off the coast of Garacad, in Puntlands Mudug region. The 22-member crew included two Bangladeshi, 19 Indian and one Ukrainian. Details of the crewmembers ordeal were shared during Shibins trial. One of the crew, the Ukrainian Oleg Dereglazov, testified that he was led to believe by the pirates that Captain Makane was dead. The Somali pirates also threatened to kill Dereglazov with a knife and tortured him by placing a plastic bag over his head, nearly suffocating him. Dereglazov also testified that he was hung from a meat hook inside the ships freezer while half-clothed and that he also had his feet and hands tied together for hours under the hot sun. During his almost eight-months in captivity, Dereglazov kept a diary of his ordeal. Under oath, the vessels captain identified Shibin as the pirates ransom negotiator onboard the MV Marida Marguerite and provided further details on the torture that he and his crew endured. Makane added that the hostages were questioned by their captors about the value of the cargo and about the ships owner. Special privileges, such as contact with family members and free access to roam the vessel, were given to one crewmember who cooperated with the pirates. The captain testified that Shibin was onboard the vessel for most of their captivity. In the audio-taped ransom negotiations, which took place by phone and were played in court, Shibin por-

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trayed himself to the ship owners negotiator as the alias Ali Jamal, claiming to work for a human rights non-governmental organisation (NGO) and looking out for the well-being of the hostages. In efforts to place pressure on ship-owners, in the hopes to expedite ransom payment, Shibin told the shipowners negotiator that pirates had started to torture the hostages. However, the captain testified during the trial that he and his crew were not tortured initially, as Shibin had claimed. Initially, the shipping company offered a ransom payment of USD 812,000. The pirates rejected the offer, claiming that they were spending USD 700 to 800 a day on supplies for the pirates and hostages and remained firm in their initial ransom demand of USD 15 million. Negotiations were lengthy and the vessel and its crew were eventually relocated by the pirates from the coastal cities Garacad and Habo to the pirate-stronghold in Hobyo. The hostages had been told that the crew would be handed over to the terrorist organization al Shabaab and shot and killed if their ransom demands were not met within 24 hours. In December 2010, the parties agreed on a ransom of USD 5 million for the release of the vessel and its crew. As directed by the pirates, the money was divided equally into five bags and a small chartered aircraft dropped the bags in the water, near the MV Marida Marguerite. The hostages and the vessel were released on 28 December 2010. Pirating of the Yacht Quest The sailing vessel Quest and its four American crewmembers were hijacked by 19 Somali pirates on 18 February 2011, about 190 nautical miles off the coast of Oman. Four US Navy warships responded to the incident. When they located the yacht, naval officials began negotiations with the pirates, two of whom boarded the USS Sterett, a US guided-missile destroyer, to further negotiations. The following morning, the Sterett was fired upon by the pirates onboard the Quest with a rocket-propelled grenade. According to Navy Vice Admiral Mark I. Fox, gunfire erupted from inside the cabin of the Quest. Several pirates appeared on the deck of the Quest and moved up to the bow with their hands in the air in surrender. The yacht was boarded by US special operations forces, who killed two of the pirates and discovered the four dead Americans in addition to two dead Somali pirates. The remaining 15 suspected pirates were detained. One person was released by authorities because he is a juvenile. The other 14 pirates were brought to Norfolk, Virginia. Three of them are facing the death penalty for the fatal shooting of the four Americans and eleven pirates have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to life in prison. According to the Virginian-Pilot, Shibin was identified by the Somali pirates onboard the Quest as their land-based, lead negotiator. The pirates had given the US Navy Shibins phone number and declared Shibin to be the party authorised to negotiate on their behalf. Shibin told FBI agents that he was asked by pirates to be their negotiator. Shibin conducted research on the Quest and he used his cell phone to look for information on Jean and Scott Adam, owners of the yacht in order to determine the amount of ransom to demand, reports the Wall Street Journal. James Broccoletti, Shibins attorney, maintains that because Shibin was arrested in Somalia hecontends the case should have been prosecuted in Somalia. He has said Shibins case is unique from other pirates the United States has prosecuted because he was arrested in Somalia, not on the high seas. According to the Virginian-Pilot, Shibin was arrested in April 2011, when FBI agents and the US military hunted him down in Somalia. Countries continue to be hesitant to prosecute pirates. Concerns over legal implications, domestic political repercussion due to human rights, possible claims of asylum, as well as the high costs involved, play a role in their reluctance to prosecute. Currently nine out of 10 suspected pirates held captive by international naval forces are released without trial. This method is often referred to as catch and release. Somalias capacity to prosecute and imprison pirates remains weak. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been supporting efforts to detain and prosecute piracy suspects in the region, as evidenced by Kenya and the Seychelles. UNODC funds supported the construction of a prison in Hargeisa, Somaliland and in March, 17 convicted Somali pirates were transferred from the Seychelles to the new prison. Currently, there are about 1,000 pirates that have been detained worldwide.
Britta Rinehard is the Horn of Africa and Piracy Desk Office at the CFC. She has ten years experience in the transportation sector and holds an MA in International Studies. Ms. Rinehard was in attendance for portions of the Shibin trial.

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