Subscribe to RSS feedReaders back Russian call for piracy court
A SURVEY of Lloyd’s List readers – a group not traditionally inclined to support Moscow’s foreign policy agenda – has found that 85% backed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for an international court to tackle Somali piracy.
In some of the highest-ever participation in a poll on the newspaper’s website, the vast majority supported the Kremlin chief’s call, made in a television interview earlier this month.
The proposal’s popularity is likely to reflect widespread frustration in the shipping industry that many pirates have been caught red-handed attacking vessels, and then simply released after questioning.
Navies attribute such action to confusion over which jurisdiction would have the power to bring charges, and some sources privately point out that governments may fear that convicted pirates would apply for asylum at the end of their sentences.
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