News

Ransom paid: Somali pirates to release Lankan crew

By Leon Berenger

Somali hijackers holding the captain and a 13-member Sri Lankan crew of a Saudi flagged tanker have agreed to release the group after the company decided to pay the ransom, the local agent in Colombo said yesterday.

The Saudi company has already channeled an undisclosed sum of money through the relevant insurance agent to be handed over to the pirates, company’s local agent S. H. R. Kumar told The Sunday Times.

He said the Sri Lankans along with the Greek captain were likely to travel to Saudi Arabia within the next few days, adding that they were in good health and had been treated well by their captors.

The MT Al Nisr Al Saudi was hijacked by pirates off the Gulf of Aden earlier this week and taken to the pirate stronghold of Garad on the Somalian coast.

Meanwhile in a related incident a four-member Sri Lankan captain and crew on a Dubai-flagged tanker are being held in an Iranian jail for allegedly filtering crude oil from off-shore rigs, National Union of the Seafarers President Palitha Athukorale said.

He said the crew was arrested in late December, and an Iranian judge had slammed a fine of $500,000 or two years in jail.

Dannie Appuhamy, father of one of those detained, said that his son had informed him that they were arrested for illegal entry into the maritime borders of Iran.

He said that they had made representations with the Foreign Office in Colombo and Sri Lankan embassy officials in Tehran had visited the group in jail.

Top to the page  |  E-mail  |  views[1]
SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend
 
Other News Articles
Lanka in diplomatic war with UN
Lanka facing El Nino heat
FM admits seeking UN job for son
4-foot ballot papers, thousands of extra boxes
900 JPs before polls
Cottage of beauty goes up in a blaze
Longer the ballot, bigger the democracy
Talk at the cafe Spectator
Dengue larvicide import still not approved
Dissolved House to meet to debate emergency
AG says Govt. would take note of UN rights comments
Presentation on continental shelf limits at opportune time: FM
Ransom paid: Somali pirates to release Lankan crew
Draft Information Act to be presented to President tomorrow
Call to prevent forest fires breaking out
Nandikadal revisited
US envoy: Challenging time for journalists
Con man blackmails unsuspecting women
From the shadows to the limelight
Intra-party battles to the fore as campaigning kicks off
Candidates fight shy of declaring assets
“Don’t allow the elections to pollute the environment”
Tit-for-tat is the name of the game
The ludicrous rise of cardboard, paper ‘protectors’
Gangsters play police to protect politicos
Tolerance would be reverence
Sri Lankan doctor cured a South African diplomat’s wife

 

 
Reproduction of articles permitted when used without any alterations to contents and a link to the source page.
© Copyright 2010 | Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka. All Rights Reserved.| Site best viewed in IE ver 6.0 @ 1024 x 768 resolution