On Trial for Piracy on the High Seas

"We're alive by a miracle.  I sent an SOS signal from our satellite phone.  When we saw them loading a second grenade, we ran to the citadel", explained Stefano Mariotti, a crew member on board the Italian-flagged Montecristo cargo ship, describing the panic that ensued when the vessel was attacked by pirate speedboats on October 10, 2011 off the Somali coast.

Kalashnikov and rocket-propelled grenade fire had shocked the 23 crew members of the ship into the immediate realization that they were under attack.  And in a courtroom in Rome, the trial of those Somali pirates who were ultimately captured and taken into custody is hearing out the drama that ensued that day.

Even while, coincidentally, and on the same day, European Union combined naval forces hit back at a pirate base on the Somalian coast, in a first-time warning.

Eight Somali sailors are now standing trial.  The Montecristo's chimney stack was hit first by the initial grenade.  A second one blew up the bridge, after the crew had fled.  The crew had decided to sequester themselves for safety, remaining locked down for over two days while the pirates used explosives and crowbars in a failed attempt to extricate the crew from their haven.

Eventually the Montecristo and its plight was identified by U.S. and British warships that had been alerted by an Italian navy destroyer.  The Andrea Doria had received news of the hijacking and took command of the rescue, representing a NATO operation.

The Montecristo crew, seeing a U.S. helicopter circle overhead, hastily wrote signs, asking for armed intervention, holding the signs up through a ventilation shaft in the chimney stack. The pirates dumped their weapons and surrendered at the sight of the approaching warships, and were then arrested on the Andrea Doria.

Prosecutors have argued that the ransom money that would have been demanded for the crew of the Montecristo would have funded the al-Shabaab Islamists, thus linking the Somali pirates with "a possible terrorist intent" in attempting to hijack the vessel and abduct the crew.

If found guilty, they would face up to 20 years in prison.  But according to their defence, they are simply innocent fishermen, forced to board the Montecristo.  Domenico Guglielmi, commander of the Andrea Doria, praised the crew of the Montecristo for their astute summing up of the situation and quick action to save themselves.

"I wouldn't define these as simple pirates.  they managed to board a ship protected by barbed wire which was travelling at 15 knots and they also managed to take control of it on two occasions", testified the Andrea Doria's commander.  "Don't let yourselves be fooled.  It's different when they have guns."

With the release of the Montecristo's crew, the warships had pursued the pirate mother ship. They found a fishing boat with additional guns and communication equipment on board.  Along with them, a special ladder with hooks for boarding vessels.  Eleven Somalis were arrested on the Montecristo, and another four on the second boat.

And the sailors that were rescued, and will always remember the fear they experienced?  They will, of course, resume their lives at sea, becoming crew members in other vessels carrying other cargoes to other parts of the world, the trauma they suffered remaining with them, and becoming particularly acute when they pass the coast of Somalia, as they inevitably will.

And the 300 international crews still being held by Somalian pirates for ransom?