Berlin - German prosecutors applied Tuesday for arrest
warrants for seven Somali pirates who attack a German naval vessel in
the Gulf of Aden last month.
The group is on board a German frigate due to tie up in the Kenyan
port of Mombasa on Wednesday.
Justice officials said the move was necessary, otherwise the
suspects would have to have been freed when the frigate
Rheinland-Pfalz docks.
A German air force plane and 40 policemen were standing by to fly
to Kenya to pick up the pirates if the Kenyan government refuses to
accept them and put them on trial.
Under a deal with the European Union, Kenya has pledged to try
pirates detained by EU warships for attacks on merchant shipping off
the Somalia coast.
It is unclear whether the arrangement applies to attacks on
warships. The pirates currently on the German frigate were detained
over a week ago after an unsuccessful attack on the navy oil tanker
Spessart.
On March 9, Germany handed over to Kenya nine pirates captured off
Somalia after another botched attack, this time on a German
freighter.
Piracy has started to pick up again off Somalia in recent weeks
following a lull of several months.
Pirates in 2008 seized dozens of ships and earned tens of millions
of dollars in ransom, prompting the international community to send
in warships to the region.
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