Mauritius declines to host detention camp for EA pirates

The refusal by Mauritius to host a special prison for piracy convicts means Kenya will continue to try and jail suspected pirates.

Mauritius turned down a request from the international community, championed by the US, France and Britain, who requested the country to allow them set up a special prison to detain pirates captured on the Indian Ocean especially the Somali territorial waters.

Other than setting up the detention centre – similar to the infamous US-run Guantanamo Bay in Cuba – Mauritius was also requested to host a special tribunal comprising local and foreign judges to try captured pirates.

The move could have offered relief to Kenya’s judicial system which has taken up various cases of suspected pirates captured outside Kenya’s jurisdiction since 2006, despite the fact the country is struggling with a backlog of cases.

According to recent statistics from the judiciary, Kenya has about 53,000 prisoners against a national capacity of 16,000, and the backlog of cases is over 870,000.

Among these cases are those of suspected pirates arrested either on the international or Somali waters.

“Mauritius parliament has declined the request to allow the setting up of the pirates detention camp. This means that Kenya will continue to bear the cost of presiding over such cases that do not directly involve its tax payers,” said East Africa Seafarers Assistance programme co-ordinator Andrew Mwangura.

Kenya hosts the highest number of pirates captured in Somali, even as other nations remain somewhat uncommitted to receive them, citing security reasons.

According to Mr Mwangura, Kenya currently hosts 123 suspects including the 10 who have since been sentenced while the US holds only one.

Yemen is holding 20 suspects, the Netherlands five, France nine, Puntland 20 and the Seychelles had 23, so far repatriated to Somali.

The Seychelles set the suspects free, with Joel Morgan the minister for environment, natural resources and transport arguing, “We do not have sufficient evidence for a trial to take place, and based on that we have respected international laws and repatriated them to their homeland.”

This action coupled with Mauritius’ recent refusal to set up a detention camp indicates that other neighbouring Indian Ocean countries are non-committal on hosting the pirates unlike Kenya said Mr Mwangura.

Kenya entered into a memorandum of understanding with other foreign powers to detain and indict suspected pirates though some legal experts believe that the move is unconstitutional.

The country signed the memorandum of understanding with the United States on January 16, 2009 and in March 6, entered into a similar deal with the European Union.

It has so far entered into related deals with Canada and China.

According to sources, the deal shields suspects from the death penalty even in cases where deaths occur during a piracy incidence.

This is despite the fact that the country’s penal codes still provides death sentences in cases of murder or robbery with violence.

“European countries cannot extradite people into the jurisdiction of a country where they would face the death penalty. The memorandum of understanding between the European Union and Kenya rules out the death penalty as punishment for a person who has committed murder during a piracy episode or robbed a vessel’s crew violently while being armed and is handed over to the Kenyan authorities for prosecution,” said the source, who is a lawyer.

The US, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Ukraine, Canada and India are among countries that have deployed ships to patrol the waters off the Somali coast to deter pirates.

Kenya has a duty to co-operate with other nations in order to curb piracy, but Kenya’s contribution to that international affair cannot be at the cost of addressing hunger and malnutrition affecting its citizens,” said Mr Mwangura.

Currently Kenya receives financial support for the prosecution of pirates from other nations as provided for by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Commission.

Though The EastAfrican could not authoritatively confirm, Mr Mwangura said that the country receives about $2.4 million despite a proposal it submitted asking for $5.1 million.