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Ransom agreed for ship carrying tanks

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-01 07:39

Ukrainian ship MV Faina, which is carrying tanks, is observed by the guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Hoybyo, Somalia, on Sept 29, 2008. [File photo]

Somali pirates have agreed on a ransom for a Ukrainian freighter carrying tanks and other heavy weapons and it could be released within days, a spokesman said yesterday.

Mikhail Voitenko said the MV Faina could be freed with its crew if agreement is reached on how to get the ransom money to the pirates, who seized the ship off the coast of Somalia in late September. He said there were negotiations on Friday.

"The owner has confirmed there is every reason to hope that it will be released in the coming week," said Voitenko, editor of Maritime Bulletin-Sovfrakht, a shipping news website.

He said he is acting as spokesman for the Faina's owner, Vadim Alperin. A man who answered the phone at Ukraine-based Tomex Team, the ship's technical manager, confirmed that Voitenko was the owner's spokesman. The man refused to give his name.

Pirate attacks off Somalia have surged more than 75 percent this year, and the seizure of the Faina raised particular concern because of its cargo of 33 tanks and other weapons and ammunition. Its Russian captain died days after the hijacking, and the ship and its 20-member crew are still being held off Somalia.

Voitenko would not give the amount of the agreed ransom, but suggested it was far lower than the pirates' initial $20 million demand. He said the average ransom for ships hijacked in the region in recent months was $1.5 million to $1.8 million and that the latest public demand he was aware of for the Faina was $3 million.