USD 75K ransom offered for Blue Star by owner

Egyptian government has denied reports that it had negotiated with the Somali pirates who kidnapped the BLUE STAR Basseterre, St.Kitts-Nevis (SKN-flag).
An Egyptian man being held hostage on a pirated ship off the coast of Somalia for nearly two weeks has accused the pirates of mistreating their captives and appealed for help. Ibrahim Etman, one of 28 Egyptian crew aboard the cargo ship Blue Star when it was seized by pirates on January 1, had phoned his daughter to ask for help.
Mona Ibrahim Etman told the daily the pirates began mistreating the hostages when the ship's owners refused to pay a 75,000-dollar ransom, ceased negotiating, and stopped answering the pirates' phone calls.

A spokesman for New Marine, the Alexandria-based company that owns the ship, however denied the report. New Marine Shipping, 68 Horreya Avenue Alexandria 11471 Egypt

HDMS Absalon (L16) helps MV SAMANYOLU

built: 1980, J.J. Sietas, Hamburg. Flag: Netherlands Antilles. Ex-name: FAGERVIK
The Dutch government said it will prosecute five suspected pirates captured this month by the Danish navy off the coast of Somalia after reaching an extradition agreement with Denmark. The ministers of justice from Denmark and the Netherlands agreed on the extradition during a brief meeting on the sidelines of an informal gathering of European justice ministers in Prague, Czech Republic, said Dutch spokesman Wim van der Weegen. Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin informed Danish counterpart Brian Nikkelsen at a European ministers' meeting in Prague that the Dutch were ready to begin judicial proceedings against the pirates. The Dutch prosecutor's office was drawing up specific charges, but the suspects likely would be tried for piracy under international law, he said. HDMS Absalon (L16)captured the men in the Gulf of Aden on Jan. 2 after receiving a distress call from an the MV SAMANYOLU, a cargo ship carrying the flag of the Netherlands Antilles, whose crew fended off the pirates with signal flares until a Danish ship arrived.