Nigerian pirate on trial in the Netherlands
(B2) Itoruboemi Benson Lobia, one of the Nigerian hijackers, arrived at Schipol airport on Thursday (December 4) from South Africa, and immediately transferred to Dutch justice, according to the television channel ONGOING. This at the end of a procedure that lasted almost two years.
A hostage-taking off Port Harcourt
The FWN Rapid of Groningen, which flies the Dutch flag, and is owned by the shipping company ForestWave had been attacked by pirates off the coast of Port Harcourt on the night of April 21-22, 2018. He came from Tadokari in Ghana. Eleven of the 14 crew members had been kidnapped and then held hostage for several weeks. The remaining men - who had been in hiding during the attack - managed to maneuver the ship to safety. The hostages were released a few weeks later, on May 18, after payment of a ransom. The hackers asked for $2 million, they finally got $340.000 according to the Dagblad Noorden.
Arrested while in transit in South Africa
He was arrested in South Africa, by the Interpol branch at Tambo International Airport, near Johannesburg in November 2018, while his plane was stopping on the way to Mauritius. The Kempton Park court then ruled in favor of his transfer last January, considering that the Dutch government had provided sufficient evidence to allow his extradition, according to the Sunday Times South African. But the accused disputed this procedure, believing that he was not the wanted man. His age, a number of physical characteristics like the existence of an earring, betrayed him. " The remarkable similarities between his appearance and eyewitness descriptions is an inconvenient truth said the South African judge.
Not a mere sidekick, but an organizer
The man, suspected of having organized the attack on the Dutch freighter FWN Rapide of Groningen, is not considered an amateur by the Dutch who suspect him behind several attacks and, even, to lead a consortium of pirates, pretty well organised. According to the captain of the ship, the pirates thus used plastic boats, which were difficult to detect by the on-board radar. Even though no crew member was Dutch, due to the flag state, the Dutch public prosecutor's office issued an international arrest warrant for him.
Several precedents
This is not the first time that pirates have been tried in a Dutch court. But it's not all recent. We remember that several Somali pirates had been transferred to the Netherlands in the early 2010s. According to our 'pirates' database, there were four transfers at the time involving 23 suspects in total. The first for the attack of the Samanyulo, ship flying the flag of the Netherlands Antilles, in January 2009 (read: After handing over pirates, the Absalon joins the CTF-151), the second for attacking the Choizil, a South African yacht, in November 2010 (read: 5 more pirates will be tried in the Netherlands), the third for the attack on an Iranian dhow Hormuz, in April 2011 with nine pirates transferred and tried, and the fourth for the capture of another dhow in October 2012 (read: 4 pirates transferred to the Netherlands). They had been sentenced respectively in June 2010, August 2011, October 2012 and the last in April 2015 (on appeal).
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
