Report: Pirates abusing Egyptian hostages on seized ship (Roundup)

Cairo - An Egyptian man being held hostage on a pirated ship off the coast of Somalia for nearly two weeks has accused the pirates of mistreating their captives and appealed for help, Egypt's leading independent newspaper reported Monday. Ibrahim Etman, one of 28 Egyptian crew aboard the cargo ship Blue Star when it was seized by pirates on January 1, had phoned his daughter to ask for help, she told the daily Al-Masry al-Youm. Mona Ibrahim Etman told the daily the pirates began mistreating the hostages when the ship's owners refused to pay a 75,000-dollar ransom, ceased negotiating, and stopped answering the pirates' phone calls. A spokesman for New Marine, the Alexandria-based company that owns the ship, however denied the report. Abdel Rahman al-Awwa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that talks with the pirates 'are still in the first phase,' but that negotiations were continuing despite difficulties in reaching the pirates. The pirates were asking for a 5-million-dollar ransom, not 75,000, he added. 'The sum of money demanded is double the price of both the ship and the cargo, otherwise we would have paid it,' al-Awwa told dpa. According to the Egyptian foreign ministry, about 15 heavily-armed pirates took control of the Blue Star as it sailed east from the Mandab Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Shipping companies have begun diverting maritime traffic away from the Suez Canal in response to the recent escalation in pirate attacks south of the Red Sea. In response to the decline in canal traffic, Egypt announced on January 5 it would indefinitely freeze transit fees for ships passing through the canal. Egypt depends heavily on the Suez Canal for revenue. According to official figures, Egypt earned 5.11 billion dollars from the Suez Canal in 2008.