India to Prosecute 35 Pirates who Hijacked Ship off Somalia, Navy Official Says

NEW DELHI: India will bring in and prosecute 35 Somali pirates its navy captured on a hijacked ship off Somalia, a navy official said, in a departure from its recent practice of rescuing vessels and crew but leaving the disarmed pirates at sea.

The captured pirates are due to arrive in India on Saturday and will be handed over to the law enforcement agencies, the official said. He declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The exact charges against the pirates were not immediately clear, he added.

Indian navy commandos managed to release the Malta-flagged commercial ship MV Ruen on Saturday, which had been hijacked 450 nautical miles east of Socotra in the northern Arabian Sea by Somali pirates on Dec 14.

It marked the first hijacking of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017.

Source – Reuters