November 01, 2019
An Iranian sailor has been released by Somali pirates after spending more than four years in captivity.
Mohammad Sharif-Panahandeh was “seriously ill” and has been freed on humanitarian grounds, said the Hostage Support Partnership (HSP), which helped negotiate his release.
Iran also announced Sharif’s release, but said Sharif was freed “thanks to the coordination done by the Iranian embassy in Ethiopia,” the Mehr news agency reported.
Sharif’s freedom means Somali pirates are holding just three people captive, all of them Iranians, HSP said. Those three and Sharif were among 21 men taken from a fishing boat in March 2015, John Steed of HSP told the BBC. Iran did not report the kidnaping at the time.
Pirate attacks in the region peaked in 2011 but have declined to negligible levels in recent years, the European Naval Force, which operates in the area, says.
“[Sharif is] severely malnourished. He lost a huge amount of weight [and has] severe stomach problems and internal bleeding,” Steed was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse (AFP).
The sailor was taken to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for initial treatment and arrived back in Tehran a few days later to a welcome from state officials.
No ransom was paid for Sharif, but the pirates may still want a ransom for the remaining three, Steed told AFP. Somali pirates have been reported to have made $7 billion from ransoms since 2007, and 1,000 individuals have been taken hostage in that time.
But Steed said the likelihood the kidnapers would get any money for the remaining trio was small. “Nobody wants to pay for these guys because they’re Baluchi,” he aid.
The decline in piracy off the Somali coast has been attributed to the use of armed guards on vessels sailing in the area, as well as the work of several navies, including from the European Union and NATO. Iran’s Navy continues to send two vessels at a time to patrol in the sea, but does not cooperate with the international flotillas.
