Posted on 05/20/2009 6:33:26 AM PDT by Schnucki
Somali pirates might be allowing themselves to be deliberately captured in order to take advantage of European asylum laws, Dutch legal experts have warned.
Pirates captured after attacking a Dutch vessel have gone on trial in the liberal Netherlands and at least two of them have declared their intention to stay on as residents.
Geert-Jan Knoops, an international criminal law attorney and professor at the Royal University of Utrecht, has suggested that the Dutch trial might encourage pirates to surrender just in order to seek a better life in Western countries.
"These trials may trigger other pirates to let themselves be arrested on purpose," he told the Volkskrant newspaper.
"The Dutch Justice department must be cautious. I cannot imagine the five alleged pirates would voluntarily return to Somalia after their conviction."
The five Somali pirates were arrested off the coast of Africa in January by Danish marines after attacking the Samanyulo, a Dutch-flagged cargo ship.
But since Somalia has a record of international human rights violations it will be almost impossible to deport the men after their conviction in the Netherlands.
"Life is good here," said one of the defendants, named Sayid, about his experience in a Dutch jail.
"I appeal to the government not to send me back to Somalia. The people who live here respect human rights. I wish to settle here."
Willem-Jan Ausma, a Dutch defence attorney who is representing another pirate, described his client's relief to be in a Western prison.
"My client feels safe here. His own village is dominated by poverty and sharia [Islamic law] but here he has good food and can play football and watch television. He thinks the lavatory in his cell is fantastic," he said.
Mr Ausma has told the Somali that he will be considered for a residence permit
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Well isn't that special.
Ah, the new wave in European immigration.
Why shouldn’t the Somali pirates feel this way? We just gave one of them a free trip to New York.
he should have gone to gitmo.
Ya think?
Kinda like the "revelation" that foreigners "may be" crossing our borders illegally for access to free health care. Duh.
I'd rather he have been made to walk the plank.
Yet another reason why you don’t have trials for pirates. You have bullets for pirates.
Just not in the US, we don’t want em....
Hang them. There, problem solved.
The solution to this is obvious.
First Question: "Do you want to become a Dutchman or just live like one?"
Three hots and a cot, something they NEVER got back home.
Isn't that just dandy?
Here they’ll get their own prison imam, cable tv and a law library.
They would probably eat better in a Dutch prison that they do at home.
If they must come here...
Let them loose in Eurofrisco or similar “sanctuary cities”.
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