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Squeezed into the wood-panelled dock, the nine young men wilted in the tropical heat. Overhead a single ceiling fan battled against the crushing coastal humidity that left judge, lawyers, accused and witness sweating in the shabby Kenyan courtroom.
As the suited lawyers for the prosecution and defence parried legalistic blows, a translator changed each half-sentence from English to Somali for the accused men, while Judge Rose Makungu wrote down every word by hand. These sluggish proceedings are the front end of the global fight against piracy.
When suspected pirates are captured by some of the dozens of international warships that patrol the Gulf of Aden and seas off Somalia daily, they are brought to Mombasa to be tried in a Kenyan court.
Agreements signed between Kenya and Britain, the United States and the European Union over the past 12 months, permit the transfers of prisoners, with 107 on trial in 11 cases. A further ten were convicted in 2006 and given seven-year sentences, although the law allows life terms. After Tuesday’s hearing, Oruko Nyarwinda, a smooth Mombasa-based lawyer with matching tie and handkerchief, told The Times that his nine clients were innocent. “These guys had a speedboat with two motors because it bears passengers crossing from Yemen to Somalia. The reason they were carrying a gun is because that place is risky,” he said.
The gun in question, a weather-worn AK47 rifle, lay on the courtroom floor, next to the witness box where David Georgios, the Romanian captain of the 21,000-tonne cargo ship MV Maria K, was giving evidence.
Mr Georgios said that on May 22, nine Somali pirates in a light-blue skiff bore down on the vessel, armed with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher and assault rifles. He told the court that he heard the whoosh of a rocket fired at his ship. He picked out one of the suspects, a slim gap-toothed man with a pointed goatee beard, as being the one wielding the RPG.
The pirate attack was foiled by Mr Georgios’s evasive manoeuvres, swinging the 175m (575ft) vessel from port to starboard, buying time until the arrival of a helicopter from the nearby Italian frigate Maestrale. Italian Marines say that the suspects threw most of their weapons overboard before being apprehended, but at an August hearing one of the alleged pirates, Said Abdalah Haji, said that he and his friends were attacked by the Italian Navy and abducted to Kenya.
The court hearings reveal how difficult it is to prosecute gangs suspected of piracy. The trickiness of securing a conviction is why so many suspects are simply disarmed and sent back to Somalia, prompting consternation and calls for tougher action. But RearAdmiral Peter Hudson, commander of the EU anti-piracy fleet, has little time for such criticisms. “The rules of engagement are fine,” he told The Times. “The issue is that when I detain a mother ship in the middle of the ocean how do I get those pirates into a court of law?
“My aircraft has flown over it, I’ve seen skiffs, fuel, ladders, 15 pirates and no fishing gear, so it’s not out there for a Sunday afternoon sail [but] they haven’t committed an act of piracy.”
The difficulty of proving conspiracy to commit piracy in a court meant that unless the pirates were caught actually engaged in piracy, there was little chance of a conviction. It was “intensely frustrating”. The EU has sent 75 suspects to trial in Kenya, on what Admiral Hudson called “direct linkages ... I could have trebled or quadrupled that if we could prosecute for conspiracy”. All are held at the 50-year old Shimo La Tewa prison where 2,000 inmates are incarcerated, just up the road from Mombasa’s famous beach resorts.
Wanini Kireri, the officer in charge, called the pirates “a blessing in disguise” because as part of the deal by which Kenya tries pirate suspects, the judiciary and prison system is getting a minor upgrade. About $7 million (£4 million) in funding is being provided to support piracy prosecutions in Kenya and other courts in the region, notably in the Seychelles. As part of that, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has provided mattresses and blankets, a new kitchen and a better sewerage system. The UN body has also provided support to the courts and lawyers.Mr Nyarwinda, who said he was providing his services without charge, criticised what he called a “lopsided” approach that he said stacked the odds against the suspects, with most funding going to prosecutors and magistrates.
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