rfmcdonald | [LINK] "Russian navy ‘sent Somali pirates to their death’"

I'm profoundly unimpressed by Somali pirates. Yes, the country is impoverished and chaotic; yes, the use of the fisheries by foreigners and dumping of waste is inappropriate. The fact that these pirates don't put their energies towards actually fixing the country, but instead act like terrorists and thieves, leaves me profoundly unimpressed. I actually think that the different countries with protective naval forces in t4he area should take the gloves off. This, though, is beyond acceptable.

Ten captured Somali piracy suspects are thought to have died after the Russian navy released them in an inflatable boat without navigational equipment, Russian media are reporting. An unnamed source told Russia's Interfax news agency yesterday: "It seems that they all died."

The alleged pirates seized the container ship Moscow University - carrying $50m of crude oil - on May 5 in the Gulf of Aden. Marines from the Russian warship Marshal Shaposhnikov, which patrols the pirate-infested Gulf as part of an international force, stormed the ship the following day, freeing the unharmed crew.

Initially, Russia said the suspected pirates would be taken to Moscow to face trial, but Colonel Alexei Kuznetzov later announced that "imperfections in international law" meant they would instead be released.

An international maritime treaty means suspected pirates can be tried in the home countries of their victims – but some governments have been put off this course of action for fear that convicted pirates might not return to Somalia after serving out their time in jail. Kuznetzov seemed to echo this when he said: "Why should we feed some pirates?"

Russian media reported that the 10 men were set adrift in a boat with no navigational equipment, and that contact was lost with the boat's radio beacon within an hour. However, Commander John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU naval force in Somalia, told the BBC that the loss of navigation equipment would not necessarily be critical and that the signal from the beacon could vanish if the battery ran out or it entered a satellite blind spot.