The UN should support the establishment of a tribunal to try Somali pirates, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen said on Monday.
Verhagen said the tribunal should preferably be located in Kenya, under the supervision of the UN. Russia also supports the idea.
Verhagen argued that a tribunal in the region could prevent pirates from being tried in The Netherlands. Five Somali pirates standing trial in Rotterdam have welcomed the treatment they’ve received. One told Dutch reporters that he wants to stay in the country after he has served his sentence and ask his family to join him.
This gives the wrong signal, says Verhagen. “The trial should be a deterrent. They should not get the idea that this is paradise.’’ Convicted pirates should be confined in prisons much less comfortable than Dutch detention facilities, he added, suggesting that a special UN prison could be built in Kenya.
Some pirates have already been extradited from The Netherlands and now on trial in Kenya, but that is not enough says Verhagen.
The island nation of the Seychelles, meanwhile, has announced it will host UN-backed courts to try suspected pirates nabbed by European Union naval forces off the coast of Somalia.
Source RNW
Dutch want pirate court
Published: May 19, 2010
