Somali pirates free Spaniards on 4 million dollar ransom (Roundup)

Nov 17, 2009, 12:52 GMT

Madrid/Mogadishu - Somali pirates who held the 36 crew of a Spanish fishing vessel for 46 days released them Tuesday, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.

The pirates received a ransom of about 4 million dollars (2.3 million euros), a pirates' representative told the German Press Agency dpa earlier by phone.

'The vessel is navigating freely towards more secure waters,' Zapatero said.

The crew, which includes 16 Spaniards as well as Africans and Asians, were 'safe and sound,' the premier explained.

'We received four million dollars to release the Spanish fishing boat,' said Ali Dhere, a member of the piracy ring which hijacked MS Alakrana.

Dhere also said there was an agreement on the release of two of the suspected pirates who were captured by a Spanish frigate and brought to Madrid for trial.

The pirates had threatened to start killing the fishermen unless the two were set free.

A government crisis team met in Madrid earlier Tuesday while Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Maritime Minister Elena Espinosa were meeting with Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke in Rome.

The Alakrana was seized on October 2 in the Indian Ocean and taken to near the Somali coast.

Two of the suspected pirates left the vessel one day after the hijacking and were captured by a Spanish frigate taking part in anti- piracy patrols in the area.

That move complicated the negotiations with the pirates who insisted on the release of the two.

They were now expected to be tried within a few weeks, but it was not clear whether they could be handed short enough prison sentences for Spain to be able to expel them.

Several possibilities were being considered, including that of the government pardoning them.

The Alakrana crew members come from Spain, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Seychelles.