I wrote last week about the difficulties in prosecuting pirates, even high-profile ones, and the increase in pirate attacks after the Navy Seals’ awesome and heroic rescue of the Maersk Alabama.
As Eugene Kontorovich notes, the surviving Maersk Alabama pirate will be tried in New York. Other pirates detained by the German navy are suing their captors for defense funds.
Meanwhile, the South African Star reports American and Canadian ships pursued a pirate vessel for several hours yesterday, and on Saturday Dutch marines freed 16 Yemeni fishermen taken prisoner by the pirates, and Der Spiegel reports increased cooperation between pirates and violent Islamic extremist groups in the week since the Maersk Alabama rescue.
Legally, we can hope the proceedings against the surviving Maersk Alabama survivor will be a step towards a workable piracy prosecution system. Kontorovich is skeptical:
I anticipate this case to be a relatively straightforward one. The crime in question was at the center of global attention for a week. This guy was likely filmed by several Navy drones, aircraft and other assets. And given the groundbreaking nature of the case, I’m sure vast efforts will be taken to get it right.
But this is just one pirate. Hundreds have been captured and released by the NATO-lead coalition. It is not clear if this prosecution could be replicated on such a scale, and in many less-well documented cases.
I share Kontorovich’s skepticism and his sense that a pirate’s life is rough enough that prosecution, and even years in Western prison, will not serve as a meaningful deterrent. The international force will nonetheless have to craft some deterrent, or acquiesce to paying million-dollar ransoms many times a year and fighting Sisyphean battles against a ragged and ill-equipped group of pirates.
