Thursday, November 05, 2009
"They led away three members of the crew" to the coast, Maria Angeles told Spanish radio station RNE after speaking to her husband by phone.
Angeles said the Spanish government was disregarding the pirates' demand that two of the suspected pirates who took part in the attack against the Alakrana and were then taken to Spain be returned to them.
Other sources close to the fishermen and quoted by Spanish media said the pirates threatened to disembark their hostages and hand them over to the families of those held by Spain.
Spanish troops monitoring the area off the Somali coast captured the two suspected pirates detained in Spain shortly after they left the Alakrana on a small boat.
The Alakrana and its initially 36 crew members have been held by pirates since Monday.
The captors are demanding four million dollars (2.6 million euros) ransom as well as the freeing of the two suspected pirates.
Somali pirates, who have launched almost daily attacks near the Seychelles since monsoon winds dropped a month ago, currently hold a total of nine ships and around 200 crew.
Spain's deputy prime minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Thursday the government was doing "everything we can" to help free the hostages, and added she was sending out a message to their families not to worry. She did not elaborate.
Source: AFP, Nov 05, 2009