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Somali pirates currently holding hostage the Basque fishing vessel Alakrana have moved three randomly selected crew members to the Somali mainland, confirmed the wife of fisherman Gaizka Iturbe in an interview with Radio Euskadi.

The pirates are still threatening to hand the three crew members over to the families of the two pirates currently in prison in Spain. According to Gaizka Iturbe''s wife, her husband said his capturers would "take us down one by one until their two comrades are released".

Two of the pirates involved in the hijacking were captured by Spanish military forces taking part in an EU anti-piracy flotilla and brought to Madrid. Courts have spent the last 10 days trying to decide if one of them is a minor or an adult, and their colleagues back on the Alakrana reportedly demanded their release as a condition for freeing the trawler and its crew.

"The Government have messed this one up, the whole of Spain should know that," she informed Radio Euskadi. "You can''t play with the lives of 36 fishing crew".

According to the Spanish Fishing Confederation, the group ringleaders on the ship had launched a grenade towards the Spanish frigate, which is in waters close by, to warn it off going near the Alakrana. Following the attack, the pirates forced the crew members to call their families to ensure that none of them had been hurt.

High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz ruled yesterday that young Somali pirate ''Abdu Willy'' should be returned to prison for his involvement in the hijacking of the Basque fishing-boat.

They are "OK"

Spanish Defence minister Carme Chacon said that the central government knows "exactly where the three members of the crew are." Chacon added that "they''re in good condition."

Following the meeting of the Interministerial Coordination Committee on Thursday morning, she explained that the other 33 members of the Alakrana crew are "OK" aboard the tuna boat, which remains in the same place where the pirates hijacked the fishermen.

Armed security

Spain passed a law last week allowing armed security guards on board vessels in dangerous waters such as the Indian Ocean.

Last year crew members of another Spanish boat were freed by pirates in the area after a $1.2 million ransom payment, according to a Somali official.

Pirates have plagued busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia for several years. Foreign warships from 16 nations are in the area to try to prevent hijacks, but the sea gangs are now hunting for ships far into the Indian Ocean.

The gangs - some made up of former fisherman angered by the presence of foreign fishing fleets in Somali waters - and their backers within Somalia and abroad have made tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments.