Pirates release Thai ship after ransom paid
John Chadwell, Hunt of the Sea Wolves
Somali pirates have released a Thai-flagged fishing vessel, say a European Union naval force in a Voice of America story today. The crew and ship have been held captive for the last four months.
According to the VOA report, the EU anti-piracy mission stated that pirates released the Thai Union 3 from the port of Harardhere. An undesclosed ransom was supposedly paid for the release.
The crew of the Thai Union 3 is comprised of 23 Russians, two Filipinos, and two men from Ghana. Pirates shot the ship’s captain as they hijacked the ship October 29 in Indian Ocean, north of the Seychelles islands.
With hundreds of attacks to their credit over the last three years, Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars hijacking ships and kidnapping their crews for ransom.
Just the day before the release, pirates hijacked a Norwegian chemical tanker with a 21-member Burmese crew. The ship was in transit from the United Arab Emirates to Tanzania when it was seized.