Spanish Government Faces Questions Over USD 1.2 Million Randsom For Tuna Fishermen ff
29 April 2008
Spain The Spanish crew of the kidnapped tuna fishing boat, ‘El Playa de Bakio’ which was boarded by pirates of the coast of Somalia last Sunday has now been released, after the reported payment of a 1.2 million US dollar ransom.
It came after talks were reported to be taking place in a luxury London hotel, and was confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Maria Teresa Fernández de la Vega on Saturday afternoon at a press conference in the MoncloaPalace. She declined to answer questions about the payment of any ransom, but Reuters reported on Sunday, quoting local sources, that the pirates were finally paid 1.2 million US dollars, some 766,000 € .
This has been confirmed by one of the negotiators in the talks who linked the pirates to the Somali war. Andrew Mwangura has claimed that indeed 1.2 million USD was paid and reports indicate that the pirates selected the Spanish tuna fishing boat as their target on the Internet.
The Partido Popular here in Spain are now calling on the Government to explain whether or not a ransom was paid and called for a statement on the matter to congress.
The boat is owned by the PequerÃa Vasco Montañesa company, based in Bermeo in Vizcaya and had a total crew of 26, thirteen of them Spaniards – eight from Galicia and five from the Basque Country.
After their release a member of the crew revealed to a Spanish news source that the pirates had held them at gunpoint at all time, and that the release was pacific but carried out with caution.
Gotzon Klemos told the paper ‘I don’t know if they paid a ransom for our release, but we are very happy. Please tell my wife I’m coming home’.
