French prosecutors have started building a case against six alleged Somali pirates captured in the Indian Ocean this month in a commando operation to rescue a couple held aboard a hijacked yacht. Special forces stormed aboard the Carre d'As on September 15 to rescue its crew, a French couple who had been abducted nearly two weeks earlier. One suspect was killed and six captured and flown to France.It was the second French operation against Somali pirates this year, and President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to get tough with the gangs who prey on shipping in the waters off east Africa's most troubled state.
Prosecutors in Paris have now opened an inquiry, which a judicial source said would be conducted by gendarmerie officers with a view to charging the six captives with hijacking, hostage-taking for ransom and conspiracy.
| How about charging them with 'piracy'? |
The charges carry life sentences and are the same as those facing six more Somalis captured in April in an earlier raid launched by French commandos after another French-owned yacht was captured and its crew ransomed.
Sarkozy has promised that French forces will continue to fight piracy and France has called for the creation of an international naval patrol to protect shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden and escort humanitarian aid to Somalia.