The trial of the 7 pirates arrested by the Spessart continues

(BRUSSELS2) The first hearings of witnesses for and against the 7 pirates arrested on 7 March 2009 after the attack on the German military ship Spessart began several weeks ago in Mombasa (Kenya). But the procedural incidents are multiplying. Obliging each time the witnesses, that is to say the officers who participated in the arrest (in this case Spaniards and Germans) to make the trip to Mombasa. " What singularly complicates our task — explains a soldier participating in Atalanta — very often the soldiers have returned or are on other missions. The distance doesn't really make it easy. Especially since the trial in Kenya is not always easy.

Hackers' lawyers are pretty incisive. They thus first of all obtained that all the people who technically recorded the facts become witnesses and must therefore appear personally before the court. Then they challenged the UN translator (Spanish) as being too biased (end of September). The hearings of two senior Spanish and German officers have just ended, as reported by the Kenyan press. Some details were thus provided on the circumstances of the arrest after the attack on the supply ship Spessart: “Three warning shots were not enough to stop the pirates. They continued” testifies a German officer. “It took more shots to stop them. The Spessart then set off in pursuit with a helicopter. Before they boarded pictures were taken.

The hearings in this trial will resume... on November 30.