Somali pirates, captured by Malaysian forces in a raid to free a hijacked oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, arrived on Monday in Malaysia for possible prosecution.The seven, dressed in orange detention suits and handcuffed behind their backs, arrived at Port Klang south of Kuala Lumpur and were taken under heavy security to a cop shoppe and then a hospital, an AFP news hound saw.
Transported in a convoy of a dozen vehicles, they spent an hour undergoing medical checks as some 50 police with automatic weapons stood guard outside the hospital's emergency department.
Authorities had said the pirates would arrive in Malaysia on board the rescued tanker MT Bunga Laurel, which along with its crew of 23 was seized on January 20 in the Gulf of Aden, the centre of Somalia's piracy crisis.
The chemical tanker was headed to Singapore with a cargo of lubricating oil worth more than US$10 million (S$13 million) when bandidos armed with AK-47 assault rifles boarded and took control of the ship.
Malaysian naval commandos from a vessel protecting shipping in the area, along with a navy attack helicopter, responded to a distress call and captured the pirates after a brief firefight.