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.
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