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[News] Seychelles signs repatriation agreement for convicted pirates

11th February 2011August 10, 2023 Nicolas Gros Verheyde

(B2) The Seychelles authorities have announced that they have signed an agreement with their counterparts in Somalia (GFT, Puntland, Somaliland) so that Somali pirates convicted in the archipelago can serve their sentences in Somalia.

This agreement is the first of its kind, concluded under the aegis of the United Nations program against crime and drugs (UNODC). It is fully part of the international strategy (summarized in Jack Lang's report) aimed at ending impunity and providing the countries of the region with new judicial and penitentiary capacities. However, it will only come into force when the penitentiary structures in Puntland or Somaliland in particular have been extended and brought up to international standards.

According to the UNODC, there are currently around 746 pirates currently detained in a dozen countries: 240 pirates in Puntland, 46 in the Seychelles (including 31 already sentenced)... As well as (according to our Brussels figures2), 111 in Kenya, a hundred in Yemen, 43 in India, 36 in a country of the European Union, 12 in the United States, 7 in Malaysia, 5 in South Korea, 1 in Tanzania...

(NGV)

Read also: The Suspects Transfer Agreement with Seychelles (exclusive)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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