“Big mouth” arrested. Who was he ? (Shift3)
(BRUSSELS2) One of the most important players in piracy in Somalia, Mohamed Abdi Hassan was arrested on Saturday at Zaventem airport (Brussels), according to the daily De Standaard. Belgian federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle confirmed this during a press conference held this Monday (October 14) in Brussels.
A nice catch
The one who is nicknamed Afweyne (big mouth) was attracted by … a film project about his life. A false project "assembled" from scratch by Belgian security specialists. The special units of the Brussels police then only had to pick him up when he got off the plane from Nairobi. He was transferred to Bruges prison where he should be tried, in particular for the hijacking of the Belgian dredging vessel Pompei in April 2009. Another man, Mohamed M. Aden Tiiceey was also arrested. The council chamber should decide Tuesday, according to the Belga agency.
Afweyne's "business"
A former civil servant from the Muduf region (central Somalia), Afweyne had a good idea. " He started in 2003 - testifies an anonymous person to UN investigators. He asked me to invest $2000. He was begging. And told me "I really have a good business idea. I didn't invest. And I regret it a lot today ! The United Nations experts describe him, in fact, in their report on Somalia, as one of the most influential in the network of pirates in the Hobyo-Harardheere area. " the Afweyne family succeeded by coopting members of the local community, mainly from the Habar Gidir Sallebaan sub-clan, through the redistribution of wealth ».
One of the most influential in the area
With his band, Mohamed Abdi Hassan then hijacked several ships. Besides the Pompei, we find his trace in the affair of the two Spanish logisticians of Doctors Without Borders, Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut, whom he had bought from the Shebabs (read: Hackers 'buy' 2 MSF hostages from Al-Shabaab). He and his son are credited with hijacking the Indian Ocean Explorer and the German container ship Hansa Stavanger (April 2009), the British bulk carrier Ariadne (May 2009), the Spanish Basque fishing boat alakrana or the Chinese bulk carrier Xin Hai (October 2009), etc.
On the way to a peaceful "retiree"
In fact, according to UN experts, he had already withdrawn for, at least several years, " day-to-day operations, leaving his son Abdiqadir to direct these operations ". However, he continued to profit from piracy, a business he had created, and dominated the local khat market ". He benefited from strong local connections. He had thus been in the sights of Interpol for several months, even several years already. Earlier this year, he publicly announced that he was retiring from business, even wanting to devote himself to becoming an adviser to the Somali government in the fight against piracy (read: Latest piracy news (January 17).
And a local "notable"
As for Tiicey, he is a local notable, governor of the Adado region. He was close to the pirates and had served as an intercessor in several cases of capture. He had notably accompanied the three Syrian hostages of the MV Orna released in Mogadishu, at the beginning of January in the company of Abdiqadir (the son of Afweyne), explaining that they had been released without payment of ransom.
(paper completed Tue 15 and Wed 16 October)
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