Pirates pocket $750 000 ransom
2008-07-10 08:51
Tallinn - Somali pirates took a $750 000 ransom for the release of 15 crew and their German-owned ship after a 41-day hostage ordeal, Estonian state TV quoted the ship's captain as saying on Wednesday.
"Tuesday morning, when pirates finally got the money they wanted, they counted it from seven in the morning until six in the evening and then they finally left," Valentin Bartashov said in a telephone interview.
He did not say who paid the ransom or how it was delivered.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet had earlier told the daily Eesti Paevaleht that the state was not involved in any ransom payment.
"We don't make deals with terrorists," Paet said. The German-owner of the ship, the Lehmann Timber, refused to give any details of how the vessel was released.
Happy to be alive but suffering from hunger and exhaustion an Estonian crew member told state TV the ship was still days away from a safe port in Oman.
"We're all alive," Estonian Ardo Kalle, the only European Union citizen among the crew of 15 which included Russians, Ukrainians and Myanmar nationals.
"We're very hungry, and we have almost no food left," said Kalle, the ship's first mate.
"We are free now but it still takes around three days to reach a safe port. The ship that was supposed to bring us food and drinking water was unable to get to our ship on Tuesday, so we have to manage without food," Kalle said, adding he hoped to be at home by next week.
Kalle said some 20 to 40 armed pirates stayed aboard the vessel during the 41-day hostage ordeal off the east African coast, confining the crew to cramped quarters.