Will Obama Prosecute the Somali Pirate in a US Court?

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill04132009.html

A Test Case for Habeas Corpus
Will Obama Prosecute the Somali Pirate in a US Court?
By JEREMY SCAHILL

The airwaves, newspapers and websites have been saturated with coverage of the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, the US citizen who was being held by four Somali “pirates” on a small lifeboat in the Indian Ocean, following the unsuccessful attempt by the Somalis to take control of the US-flagged vessel, the Maersk Alabama, a ship owned by a Pentagon contractor.

While details are still emerging, there are definitely some serious questions looming about how the decision to use lethal military force was put into play—in particular three key questions: 1. The legality of the killing of the three Somali men; 2. The political decision to kill them in light of long term potential consequences; and, 3: The legal status of the fourth Somali “pirate” allegedly in US custody.

First the background: We are told that on Friday, President Obama gave the military the green light to use lethal force to rescue Phillips. We also know that a group of “Somali elders” believed they were negotiating with the US to try to bring about a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Reports indicate that the Somali elders asked that the four Somalis be allowed to return freely to Somalia without being prosecuted in exchange for releasing Phillips. That was reportedly rejected by the US. On Sunday, the Somalis were told the negotiations were over and that the Americans “had another action.” Shortly after that, lethal force was used—with Navy SEAL snipers on board the USS Bainbridge shooting dead three of the Somali men. The Navy says the snipers took the action because they believed Phillips’s life was in “imminent danger”—this allegedly came when a Somali was pointing an AK-47 at Phillips’s back. A fourth Somali citizen is in custody, though it is unclear when exactly he was taken by the US. Reports indicate that he had been stabbed in the hand in the initial “pirate” raid on the Maersk Alabama and, before the Sunday raid, had voluntarily left the lifeboat holding Phillips to seek medical attention from the US warships and/or to negotiate with the US side.

I have been in touch with two well-respected legal scholars, Francis Boyle from the University of Illinois College of Law and Scott Horton, a military and constitutional law expert. Both agree that the US had legal justification to use lethal force against the “pirates.” Boyle said, “Technically, piracy is a felony under US law. And deadly force can be used against someone involved in the commission of an ongoing felony.”

[opihimoimoi]

1. A comedy of errors for the Pirates...picked on the wrong ship...

4 guys??? Canardly ....

The last kid...?

Best thing...save money....return him to shore....fuck free food to him...get him back to shore with a warning....DON'T FUCK with the US NAVY

[Lasher]

2. Send him home and he'll be back to pirating within a week.

The other three guys won't ever do that again though.

[opihimoimoi]

5. If he continues.....most likely....thats his decision...but to house this kid...send him to court

gonna cost us big bucks....better to let him go home to nothing.....

don't be wasting food and time on the dude....its not worth it....

[GoCubsGo]

4. Something tells me...

..that kid got that message loud and clear after seeing his three buddies get their brains blown out right next to him. It's the others out there that aren't getting it, judging by the latest reports.

[hugo_from_TN]

3. "pirate"?

Why all the quotes around pirate? Does the author of the article not consider armed men who take over a ship by force, hold the crew hostage, and demand ransom "pirates"?

The "pirate" should be keel-hauled and hung from a yardarm, but fortunately for him that won't happen.

[lunatica]

6. International piracy laws don't help much and create a lot of sticky problems

http://www.simpsongrierson.com/publications/fyis/fyi-on-the-case/modern-day-piracy-andbrinternational-law.html?p=1



International Laws on Piracy

Under customary international law, pirates were considered "hostis humani generis" or "the enemy of mankind" and any country could arrest and try them under their jurisdiction.

The modern international law governing piracy is the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS defines piracy as illegal acts of violence, detention, or depredation (plundering, robbing or pillaging) committed for private ends by a private ship on the high seas, i.e. outside the jurisdiction of any country.

The same acts, when committed inside the territorial waters of a country, do not fall under the definition of piracy, but are simply considered "sea robbery" under international law, and are dealt with by the laws of that country. Domestic laws seldom permit a vessel or warship from another country to intervene.

Illegal acts committed for political rather than private ends also fall outside the international law definition of piracy.

Under UNCLOS, all signatory countries are required to cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas. Any country may seize a pirate ship or a ship taken by pirates, arrest the pirates, and that country's courts are entitled to decide on the penalties to be imposed.


Using International Law to Respond to Piracy

Despite the existence of UNCLOS and the recent UN Security Council resolution in relation to Somalia, there is still no cohesive response to piracy, and countries who do try to step in can face a number of difficulties.

For example, the Danish Navy arrested 10 pirates in September 2008, but freed them because the Danish government believed it did not have jurisdiction to prosecute them.

The UK Foreign Office has advised the Royal Navy not to detain pirates of certain nationalities, including Somali, as they might claim asylum in Britain under human rights laws. However, the British Navy did shoot three suspected Somali pirates and capture eight in November after the pirates attacked a Danish merchant vessel. The British Navy then handed them to Kenyan authorities to be tried in Kenya, rather than dealing with them themselves.

The French have been more bold. In April this year, the French Special Forces went into a small Somali village and detained six pirates who had previously seized a French passenger vessel in the Gulf of Aden. They were transported to Paris where they are to be tried. Although the piracy took place in international waters, UNCLOS does not sanction the French forces' entry into Somalia. Whether this affects the French Courts' ability to prosecute the pirates is yet to be seen.

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