News

A meeting of the relatives of crew members of the hijacked trawler Alakrana with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took place at 5.00 pm on Tuesday, after the families met with the president of the Spanish High Court, Angel Juanes. The families of the crew requested that the central government send the two Somalis arrested in Spain back to Somalia, as the hijackers of the Alakrana look to continue with the negotiations.

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel Moratinos, spoke at the House of Representatives at the end of the crisis cabinet meeting to analyse the current situation of the hijacked tuna boat and said that the Government will "spare no effort" to resolve the situation.

Moratinos also said that the Somali PM Omar Abdurashid Ali Sharmake had instructed his interior minister to carry out all "reasonable steps" to put an end to hijacking in Somali waters.

The relatives of those captured also want to met the Spanish Royal House, although they have still received no response.

Pirate Willy Abdu''s attorney, Francisco Javier Diaz Aparicio, on Tuesday talked about another legal possibility: deporting the pirates jailed by the High Court to Somalia. As he explained to the Basque public radio station Radio Euskadi, the extradition would be a solution "in the long term" and would last "8 or 9 months, " while the expulsion "would be solved in 3 days."

On Tuesday morning, Aparicio Diaz met with the Office of the Spanish High Court to talk about this possibility.

The public prosecutors replied that they are waiting for instructions, but they also said the accusations of hijacking, among many others, will not go away.

Spanish Justice minister Francisco Camaño on Monday said that the government is studying a possible extradition and that there are two choices: to judge the arrested pirates in Somalia, or to do it in Spain. Subsequently, they would serve their sentence in the African country.