U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday presented a report to the Security Council outlining options for prosecuting pirates captured off the coast of Somalia In the past seven months, there have been 139 piracy-related incidents off the coast of Somalia, Ban noted. Thirty ships have been hijacked, and 17 ships and 450 sailors are being held for ransom. The secretary-general identified seven options aimed at prosecuting and imprisoning persons responsible for acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea. Among the options are locating a Somali court, that applies Somali law, in another country in the region. Other options include setting up a regional tribunal to address the scourge of piracy or establishing a full international tribunal with the backing of the Security Council. The U.N. chief emphasized that achieving substantive results in combating piracy—whether through a new or existing judicial mechanism—will require political and financial commitment from member states. “We will need both to establish the mechanism and ensure that it has the capacity and resources to prosecute a large number of suspects, while ensuring due process,” Ban said. “Furthermore, in considering the establishment of such a mechanism, a host state will need to be identified.”
