Written by
Nick Blenkey
Picture: Indian Navy
The Instances of India stories an Indian Navy officer as saying that 35 Somali pirates who, again in December, hijacked a Maltese-flagged bulker, the Ruen, to make use of as a mom ship will likely be delivered to India and prosecuted.
The Indian Navy guided missile destroyer INS Kolkata intercepted the Ruen round 260 nautical miles east of Somalia. The destroyer was supported by the patrol vessel, INS Subhadra, P-8I long-range maritime patrol plane, high-altitude long-endurance drones and extra marine commandos air-dropped by an Indian Air Drive C-17 Globemaster-III plane.
The Ruen was intercepted March 15, with the pirates taking pictures down a small spotter drone launched by INS Kolkata. In a calibrated response, INS Kolkata disabled the bulker’s steering system and navigational aids, forcing it to cease. Some hours later, the pirates surrendered and the Ruen’s 17 crewmembers had been efficiently and safely evacuated.
The rescue of the crew follows the Indian Navy’s profitable rescue of the crew of one other hijacked bulker, the Lila Norfolk, again in January.
“The standard observe is to set apprehended pirates adrift on their skiffs after disarming them to make sure they don’t pose a risk to different vessels,” the Navy officer instructed the Instances of India. “However these 35 pirates opened hearth on our warship. If they’re let go, they are going to re-group and start their piracy assaults once more.”
“There may be now additionally the Maritime Anti-Piracy Act, which was notified final 12 months, to prosecute such circumstances,” the officer mentioned.
On the time that laws was handed, the Worldwide Chamber of Delivery famous that it broadens the definition of officers approved to make arrests and seizures. Criminalizing instigating, supporting and/or enabling piracy, the laws offers that conviction beneath the brand new regulation would result in a sentence of life imprisonment or, if the accused is proved to have induced dying by way of an act of piracy, might outcome within the dying penalty.
