Somali pirates came to terms with radical Islamic group Al-Shabab about partial payment of ransoms obtained by pirates for captured vessels, says editor of Maritime Bulletin Mikhail Voitenko referring to a source in Republic of South Africa.
"The share is going to be 20%. In return, Al-Shabab is obliged to release several pirate leaders which had been arrested while capture of pirate's den Harardhere; also, pirates will be allowed to use Harardhere as a base, and so on", writes Voitenko in his posting on Gazeta.Ru. "The news is very bad, since it will be definitely used by numerous politicians and authorities who have been trying to forbid ransom payments for a long time", considers Voitenko.
"Now they have a good reason, because Al-Shabab is classified by the U.S. as terrorist organization", explains Voitenko. According to his estimate, if ransoms become "impossible", shipowners would have to pay them "secretly", or pirates "would sell captured sailors to relatives".
The editor of Maritime Bulletin also reminded that Somali pirates had released Japanese cargo ship Izumi for ransom. As for Voitenko, the 20-man crew consisted of Filipinos "is alive and relatively healthy". Amount of ransom was not reported. Being in pirates' captivity, the vessel was used as a mother-ship. Izumi was hijacked 170 miles southward Mogadishu on Oct 10, 2010.
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