Piracy Law News

The Indian navy handed over 35 Somali pirates to the police in Mumbai on Saturday, after 100 days of anti-piracy operations east of the Red Sea, where piracy has resurfaced for the first time in nearly a decade.India, the largest national force in the Gulf of Aden and northern Arabian Sea region, captured the pirates from the cargo ship Ruen last week, three months after it was hijacked off the Somali coast.Taking advantage of Western forces' focus on protecting shipping from attacks in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi militants…

A court in Lagos sentenced 10 men to 12 years in prison on Friday for kidnapping the crew of a Chinese-flagged merchant vessel last year, the navy said, a verdict that officials hope will help tackle piracy in the waters off Nigeria's coast.Federal high court Justice Ayokunle Faji, who also fined each man 250,000 naira ($608) for each of the three counts for which they were charged, said their actions in kidnapping 18 crew from the FV HAILUFENG II in May 2020, were "an embarrassment…

Nigeria’s navy plans to strengthen its measures to root out and punish personnel who collude with kidnappers and criminals, its new naval chief said.Kidnappings in the Gulf of Guinea, which covers 2.3 million square kilometers and borders some 20 countries, hit a record last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau.Well-armed, violent pirates operate there out of Nigeria’s hard-to-police Delta swamps, and experts say their increasingly bold tactics show that better enforcement is badly needed.Rear Admiral A.Z.

Pirates are stepping up attacks on ships in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, defying regional navies. On Saturday, pirates off Nigeria kidnapped 15 sailors from a Turkish container ship and killed one.Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea kidnapped 130 seafarers in 22 separate incidents last year, accounting for all but five of those seized at sea worldwide.Who are the pirates and why are the attacking?The pirates come from Nigeria’s turbulent Niger Delta, experts say. The region produces the bulk of the nation’s petroleum…

A Nigerian court made the first convictions under a new anti-piracy law, giving hope to the world's shipping fleets that legal reforms will help stem rising attacks in the Gulf of Guinea.The three men fined by the court in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub, on Tuesday were among nine accused of hijacking the tanker MV Elobey VI off Equatorial Guinea in March and securing a $200,000 ransom for the crew.The merchant shipping industry has long pressed Nigeria to take action in the area…

India's top court on Friday granted permission for an ailing Italian marine facing murder charges to return home for four months for medical treatment. Massimiliano Lattore, who suffered a stroke in August, is one of two Italian marines being held over the 2012 shooting of two fishermen mistakenly believed to be pirates in a case that has soured ties between New Delhi and Rome. "We are allowing the plea of the accused (Lattore) to visit Italy for four months for his brain stroke treatment," a Supreme Court bench said in an order. On Monday, India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj expressed the government's willingness to let Lattore, 47, seek medical treatment in Italy.

The Indian government will not prevent an ailing Italian marine facing murder charges from returning home for medical treatment, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday. Massimiliano Lattore is one of two Italian marines being held over the 2012 shooting of two fishermen mistakenly believed to be pirates, in a case that has soured relations between New Delhi and Rome. Lattore, 47, suffered a stroke in August. India's Supreme Court has instructed the government to respond to his plea for bail so that he can seek treatment. "We will not oppose the bail plea of the Italian marine. We will not do it on humanitarian grounds," Swaraj told reporters. Under international pressure, India had dropped a plan to prosecute the marines under a tough new anti-piracy law.

India has dropped a plan to prosecute two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen under a tough anti-piracy law, a government lawyer said on Monday, offering a chance to end a diplomatic row between the two countries. Italy had strongly opposed India invoking the law, arguing that it would amount to treating the men as "terrorists" and last week it recalled its ambassador to New Delhi in protest against the delay in the two-year-old case. The sailors, part of a military security team protecting a privately-owned cargo ship, say they mistook the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots into the water during the incident in February 2012, off the coast of Kerala state.