Seychelles to extradite suspected pirate to Belgium

The Seychelles will extradite to Belgium a Somali suspected of involvement in a pirate attack on a Belgian frigate two years ago, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The archipelago’s interior minister made the announcement at an international conference that took place in the Seychelles last week, they said in a statement posted on the Internet.

“This will be the first time in the history of the Seychelles that it will extradite a person suspected of piracy to a European country,” the statement said, adding “his fingerprints were found” on the hijacked vessel.

The suspect is being held in a prison in the Seychelles.

A Brussels court in June sentenced a second suspect in the same attack, Omar Mohammed Abdiwahad, to ten years’ imprisonment in the country’s first-ever piracy trial.

Abdiwahad was captured in November 2010 off the Kenya coast by a Belgian ship taking part in a European Union counter-piracy mission, while attacking a vessel flying the Sierra Leone flag, and was later identified by the crew of the Belgian ship, the Pompei, as one of their hijackers.

The frigate and its crew was released 71 days after it was captured after a ransom was paid.