Pirates held for questioning in Paris
PARIS, France (CNN) — Six pirates who hijacked a French luxury yacht off the coast of Somalia are now in custody in France, a diplomatic official said Wednesday.
The six men are being held at the Paris court where they are being questioned, said an official from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs who did not want to be named.
The case is now a matter for the Justice Ministry, the official said, and no charges have been filed yet.
The French military captured the six pirates in a dramatic chase through the Somalian desert as they tried to make their escape.
The pirates had just released the 30 hostages from the yacht and were trying to make off with ransom money when the military caught up with them on the African mainland.
French helicopter gunships shot at the pirates’ cars, disabling one of them. When the pirates then tried to escape on foot, the military gave chase and apprehended them. Watch the pirates being chased down
It was not clear when the pirates arrived in France. They had been held on a French warship in the region while the French government decided whether to bring them to Paris for trial.
More than a dozen pirates seized the yacht Le Ponant on April 4 off the coast of Somalia and held it and its 30-member crew hostage for a week. No passengers were on board.
It was unclear how many pirates remained on the loose. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said the government believed between 12 and 15 pirates were involved in the hijacking.
The hostages were freed following negotiations between the pirates and the French government, and arrived back in France this week. Watch the freed captives arrive on a ship
Though they weren’t harmed, the crew members said they were constantly afraid they would be. One unidentified crew member — a waiter aboard the yacht — said the captain tried to hide female crew members out of fear the pirates might rape them.
We were afraid that they were going to touch the girls, said the unnamed man, interviewed by the French military. So the captain just gave protection for them.
French media have reported payment of a $2 million ransom, which the ship’s French owners have neither confirmed nor denied. The French government says no public money was involved.
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