The five pirates arrested by the Spaniards transferred to the Seychelles
(B2) It was finally in the Seychelles that the five suspects of piracy acts arrested within the framework of operation EUNAVFOR Atalanta landed
The suspects were arrested last Tuesday (April 23) by Spanish sailors after a chase in Indian Ocean waters that lasted two days (read: The pirates are on the attack again. A mother ship stopped short in the Indian Ocean).
Two of the five pirates arrested injured
They were handed over to the Seychelles authorities on Thursday afternoon (April 25) by the crew of the Spanish flagship ESPS Navarre. Two of the suspects who were injured in the attempted attack were medically treated.
The reactivation of an agreement that has not been applied for several years
This transfer is the application of an agreement that has linked the European Union to the Indian Ocean archipelago since 2009. This is the last agreement that remains active, available to Europeans (1). Seychelles received more than 170 piracy suspects, according to B2's piracy database. Around twenty cases were investigated, leading to convictions in around two-thirds of cases. About XNUMX suspects were found guilty and sentenced.
An agreement not used for several years
But the agreement has remained unimplemented for nearly a year and a half, due to the fall in piracy in the region. The last transfer dates back to November 2017 by ITS Virginio Fasan after the attack on Galerna III. While the last piracy case tried in the Seychelles was in 2016 for facts dating back to 2014. There are still 20 Somali detainees in the prison of the archipelago, at Montagne Posée, according to the Seychellois press agency.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
A single fully operational agreement?
Kenya has decided not to admit any more prisoners transferred by the European Union. Mauritius is no longer very hot. And the agreement with Tanzania has never received any concrete application. The agreements with these last two countries were also the subject of a judgment in annulment by the European Court of Justice, in June 2014, considering them to be non-compliant with European institutional rules (read: Transfer of pirates in the Indian Ocean to the Court: an act of foreign policy?). The European Parliament having seen its rights to information 'slightly' circumvented... The effects of these agreements are upheld by the Court. But this validity remains fragile.
(NGV)
