Off The Coast Of Somalia: The Flying Dutchmen

Yesterday at around 13.30 CET the Dutch frigate HNLMS Tromp has rescued the crew of a German freighter from a pirate attack. At 9.45 CET the Tromp received a distress call from MV Taipan. The onboard Lynx was sent to asses the situation and saw the freighter dragging along two of the pirates skiffs. Meanwhile the crew of the frighter had retreated into a safe room on the ship, after disabling the propulsion of the ship -in line with the MSCHOA 'best practises'.

After consultation with the Dutch authorities in the Hague -effectively bypassing EU command- it was decided to free the freighter. While approaching, the frigate's crew detected a mothership on its way to the MV Taipan. When communication with this ship led to no result, the Tromp fired warning shots with its 127mm canon, sending the mothership running.

After the Tromp failed to establish communication with the pirates onboard the MV Taipan the CO of the Tromp, Captain Lodder, gave the order to retake the ship.
At first the pirates fired on the approaching Lynx, but that fire stopped when both the Lynx and the Tromp started firing into the bridge of the Taipan -no equipment has been damaged, so the Taipan can still sail on its own. During this suppression fire, which was aimed at the windows to stop the pirates from seeing what went on, a team of the Unit Interventie Mariniers (Dutch Maritime Special Operations Forces) fast roped onto the ship.
Once onboard they took the pirates without any resistance and all 15 crew members from the Taipan were found unharmed and have given their statements.

During the operation 1 Dutch marine sustained a minor injury, that was unrelated to the firefight.

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has thanked his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen for the Dutch action. Meanwhile the German and Dutch Prosecutors Office are discussing how to move forwards from this point. It's obvious to me that it's up to the Germans whether to prosecute. If the Germans don't want to take the pirates to court, the Netherlands will not do so for them.

And a trial in the region is unlikely with Kenya starting to cancel its agreements to prosecute pirates. And I don't think the Seychelles will see any reason to prosecute these pirates if the Germans won't.