Pirates
The Spanish tuna trawler hijacked at the beginning of October by Somali pirates has been released with its crew, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced on Tuesday
18.11.09 - 12:23 -
The Spanish tuna trawler hijacked on October 2nd by Somali pirates has been released with its crew, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced on Tuesday.
"The fishing boat Alakrana is freely navigating toward safer waters. All the crew members are safe and sound," the Spanish premier told a press conference in Madrid.
Sixteen of the 36 crew members are Spanish, while the others hail from Indonesia, Malaysia, Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast and the Seychelles.
Zapatero offered the government's regards to the crew, their families and the ship's owner, "who have lived through tough and difficult days."
The prime minister also credited "the effort of many people and the cooperation of everyone" for helping to secure the release of the boat, though he provided no details about the negotiations that ended the hijacking.
Talks with the pirates were complicated by the capture of two of the assailants involved in the original hijacking.
The Spanish navy frigate Canarias, which is part of Operation Atalanta, an anti-piracy effort launched by the European Union in February, captured the two pirates shortly after the Alakrana was seized and the men were immediately sent to Madrid.
The hijackers holding the Alakrana had conditioned any negotiations on the return of the two men arrested by Spain, but they remain behind bars in the Iberian nation awaiting trial.
