India may prosecute pirates for hijacking the Vega 5

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The Indian Navy has decided to move the 61 pirates they arrested last Sunday after they assaulted the Vega 5 fishing vessel in the Arabian Sea to Bombay.

After the attack by the Indian Navy on the fishing boat that was seized by Somali criminals on 28 December 2010, personnel from the armed forces managed to rescue 13 crew aboard the Vega 5, while another nine remain missing.

When they land, the pirates will be handed over to police in India for their arrest and interrogation.

The vessel belongs to the firm Efripel Lda, which the Mozambican government has an interest in, although it is operated by Pescamar - a joint venture which the Spanish multinational Pescanova is involved in.



Representatives of the Embassy of Mozambique in India are expected to listen to the testimony of the crew, as they tell of the months that they were held hostage for by the Somali pirates.

Also, they pretend to know what happened to the colleagues that are still missing, reports the newspaper Faro de Vigo.

Some sources close to the case said that the two Galician crew members that were kidnapped - José Alfonso García y Alfonso Rey - could be in Hobbyo, Somalia.

On the one hand, the head company said both "are good", while the Spanish Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment about it and calls for "prudence and discretion, which are required in these situations."

"We are in the process of solving a problem that requires utmost discretion so as not to obstruct the negotiations", said ministry sources.

Before being sunk 600 miles off India, the Vega 5 was a longline vessel measuring 24 meters long, with a capacity to hold 140 tonnes of cargo.

[Alfred pichikaaki]

finally

[Sahiti]

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