It has been ruled by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that France has violated the rights of Somali pirates that had laid an attack on ships sailing under the French flag. The court has ordered for them to receive a full compensation over judicial delays.
The Somali pirates are most probably going to get thousands of euros due to the fact that they were not brought before a French Judge right away.
One is set to get 9, 000 euros and the other eight are also to receive sums amounting up to 7, 000 euros.
It has been ruled by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that France has violated the rights of Somali pirates that had laid an attack on ships sailing under the French flag. The court has ordered for them to receive a full compensation over judicial delays.
The Somali pirates are most probably going to get thousands of euros due to the fact that they were not brought before a French Judge right away.
One is set to get 9, 000 euros and the other eight are also to receive sums amounting up to 7, 000 euros.
The judges ruled in their favor and blamed France for keeping them unrightfully in custody for 48 more hours.
After seizing a French cruise ship and a French yacht, MY Le Ponant, back in 2008, the pirates had held citizens of France for hostages.
The French military performed two operations in order to catch the Somali Pirates after the hostages were released after giving ransoms of $ 2.1 million and $ 2 million.
In recent years, Indian Ocean shipping has been greatly troubled by pirate gangs that attack and rob ships. However multiple countries have reacted with the proper naval action and thus the number of attacks has been significantly reduced.
Authorities had held one group of the pirates for 4 straight days and the other ones for six days and sixteen hours before giving them up to French officials. But according to the court the extra 48 hours of custody that were on French soil have violated the human rights of the pirates.
A court statement explained that article 5.3 of the European Convention on Human Rights was not in any way designed to provide the authorities with the opportunity to intensify a certain investigation process for the purpose of bringing formal changes against the suspects.
The judges pointed out the fact that France did not need another 48 hours in order to draw up charges because the time that had passed between the moment of the arrest and the transfer was enough to do so.
Court judgments have a binding manner regarding signatories of the convention.
The judges didn’t challenge in any way France’s right to arrest the pirates inside Somali territory on the pretext of UN anti-piracy rules.
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