WTFMOSCOW (AFP) - A group of Somali pirates
captured by the Russian navy in the Gulf of
Aden and then set free in a boat are most
probably dead after failing to reach the shore,
a Russian defence source said Tuesday. The 10 pirates were captured last week after
seizing a Russian oil tanker but were then
unexpectedly released, with Russian officials
saying there was insufficient legal basis to
keep them in detention. "According to the latest information, the pirates
who seized the Moscow University oil tanker
failed to reach the shore. Evidently, they have
all died," the high-ranking source was quoted
as saying by all Russia's official news
agencies. The source said that radio signals from the
boat stopped just one hour after it had been set
free by the Russian navy. No details were
given over the manner in which they could
have lost their lives. Reports have said that after their release the
Russian navy put the pirates in a boat some
300 nautical miles offshore, removing all
weaponry and navigational equipment from the
vessel. "It would have been more humane to have
hung them up from the yardarm," a rights
activist, whose name was not given, told the
Kommersant daily at the weekend. Marines from the Russian destroyer Marshal
Shaposhnikov freed the tanker from the pirate's
grasp in a dawn operation last week hailed as
exemplary by Russian defence experts and
officials. President Dmitry Medvedev said the raid was
"sharp, professional and quick" and ordered
medals for all those involved in the rescue. The fate of the pirates had been a mystery. Media had at the weekend published a picture
taken by state media showing 10 pirates lying
face down, hands tied behind their back on the
red deck of the Russian ship. A top naval official also told Kommersant that
that Russian navy had originally planned to
accompany the pirates to within 12 miles of the
shore but the offer of escort was turned down. But Somalia's ambassador to Moscow
Mohammed Handule denied that the Russian
navy had acted improperly in the affair. "Not one Somali or the government of our
country sees Russia has being guilty in this.
The Russian military showed they can act
effectively so that not one crew member of the
captured tanker was hurt." "This is the most important thing," he said
according to the ITAR-TASS news agency. Russian shipping expert Mikhail Voitenko said
reports about the pirates being set free in a
boat could just be covering the possibility they
had all been killed in the raid to free the
Moscow University. "I think this is linked to the fact nobody
released the pirates and they were killed in the
operation," Voitenko, editor of the Maritime
Bulletin, told Moscow Echo radio. "Then someone had the not very intelligent
idea 'let's pretend that they were released in
the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles from
the shore without any navigational aids'." After the tanker was recaptured, officials had
also sent conflicting signals about the future of
the pirates. Russia's investigative committee of
prosecutors had said steps were being taken to
bring the pirates to Moscow to face charges but
later backtracked, saying that this was not
being discussed. Source: AFP OSMAN TELEC]
.
