By PAUL REDFERN
Saturday, December 13, 2008
According to the UK’s Financial Times, the deal came about after Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula and UK’s security minister Lord West met on the sidelines of a piracy conference in Nairobi.
The deal comes in the same week that the United States formally asked the United Nations for permission to pursue pirates on land in Somalia if necessary.
Step forward
It also follows the arrival of a European Union naval force, which began patrolling waters off Somalia under the British naval command.
The agreement between Kenya and the UK is now being examined by EU diplomats to see if a similar deal could be used for all captured pirates.
“This is a really good step forward. It shows people are taking piracy seriously,” Lord West said after signing the agreement.
According to the British newspaper, the UK demanded assurances that pirates’ legal and human rights would be respected in Kenya and that they would not be subjected to the death penalty.
It also formalises an ad hoc arrangement made in November under which eight men who were caught by a British frigate and accused of trying to hijack a Danish cargo ship were brought for trial in Kenya.
Fishermen
The eight appeared in court in Mombasa on Thursday but their trial was adjourned until January.
A lawyer for the accused told CNN that they were fishermen, adding that since they were seized off the coast of Yemen they should be subjected to Yemen’s jurisdiction, not Kenya’s.
Kenya shares a land border with Somalia and many of the ships hijacked by pirates have been en route to or from Mombasa.
Source: Daily Nation, December 13, 2008