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By Alisha
Ryu
Nairobi, August 29, 2009 – A Paris-based legal aid network, Lawyers of
the World, says agreements signed by the United States, Britain, the
European Union, and Denmark to transfer suspected Somali pirates to
Kenya for trial violate the human rights of the suspects. The legal
group is representing more than 40 detainees captured by European navies
off the coast of Somalia and handed over to Kenya for prosecution.
Lawyers of the World representative Avi Singh tells VOA his organization
has written to the United Nations, the European Union, and to Kenya's
foreign ministry, expressing deep concern that more than 100 suspected
pirates awaiting trial in Kenya are being denied basic human rights and
the right to a fair trial.
"Under Kenyan domestic law, there is no entitlement to legal aid for
anybody who is not accused of a capital offense," said Singh. "So,
suspected pirates have no opportunity to have a lawyer. They have no
opportunity to review the evidence against them. At no point is there
any independent adjudication of whether these people are actually
pirates, have actually committed a crime or not. So, basically, you have
ship-catching to conviction."
In Kenya, convicted pirates can face life in prison. The east African
nation became a venue for piracy trials after a surge in ship hijackings
off the coast of Somalia stiffened international resolve to prosecute
suspects caught at sea.
Under agreements signed in the past year with the United States,
Britain, the European Union, and most recently with Denmark, Kenyan
courts are responsible for trying suspected pirates apprehended anywhere
in the region by foreign navies. In return, Kenya is said to be
receiving funding and support to reform its much-criticized judicial
system.
Earlier this year, U.N. human-rights investigator Phillip Alston
published a scathing report on widespread judicial corruption in Kenya.
The country's courts are also reportedly overwhelmed by a backlog of
more than 80,000 cases.
Singh says none of the funds given to the prosecution and courts are
making their way to Shimo la Tewa, a notoriously overcrowded prison in
the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa. He says many of the accused
hijackers have been there for months without adequate medical care and
access to such basic amenities as soap.
"There are juveniles in there and they all have medical ailments,"
continued Singh. "There is actually a 14 year-old kid with bullet
wounds. There is somebody with a bullet still in the body. They have had
no contact with any family members or any opportunity for contact with
anybody in Somalia since their arrest."
Earlier this month, Singh and several of his colleagues convinced a
court in Mombasa to postpone the trial of 11 alleged hijackers captured
by a French warship and in Kenyan custody since April. Singh says he
requested the two-month postponement so that the defense could mount a
proper case.
Lawyers of the World has asked the International Committee of the Red
Cross to deliver food and medicine to piracy suspects and to monitor
their treatment in jail.
Horn of Africa analyst Roger Middleton says he agrees that depending on
Kenya to help solve the piracy problem in Somalia is less than ideal.
"What it shows, the fact that we are having to use Kenya, is the problem
when you o not have a proper legal entity to deal with inside Somalia,"
said Middleton. "Now, if you pick up a pirate off Portugal, you hand
them over to Portugal. If it is Indonesia, you hand them over to
Indonesia. And that is the way it should work and the way it works quite
sufficiently. But because Somalia is such a mess, you cannot do that and
it creates all these problems."
The International Maritime Bureau says it recorded 130 piracy incidents
off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden in the first half of this
year, compared to just 24 last year. The attacks are continuing, despite
constant patrols by no fewer than three dozen ships from multi-national
forces and independent flotillas from China, Russia, India, and others.
On Thursday, the U.S. Navy said Somali pirates opened fire on a Navy
helicopter, as it was conducting a surveillance of a captured vessel in
central Somalia. There were no reported casualties or damage.
The Navy says pirates fired a large caliber weapon at the helicopter as
it flew over a Taiwanese-flagged ship, the MV Win Far, used in the
attack against the U.S.-flagged Maersk-Alabama in April. The Win Far was
captured earlier this year with more than 30 crew members.
Source: VOA, August 27, 2009
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