The Dutch To Fight Pirates On Shore

On March 23 the European Union decided to extend operation EU NAVFOR until December 2014. At the same time the AOR has also been extended to include Somali coastal territory and internal waters. 

On April 3 their operation plan has been adjusted accordingly.Soon after that, the Dutch government has decided that they will act according to the new operational plan. The Dutch have wanted this extention for quite some time now.

And to be effective against pirates, the Dutch had also agreed last year to put helicopters on every ship they would send to the Horn of Africa.

Because the NH90 has been delayed and the Westland Lynx' are end-of-life, instead of the frigate HNLMS Tromp, the Dutch will now send HNLMS Rotterdam, a LPD. In 2010 they also sent a LPD and used LCU's and LCVP's to block the Somali coast. But HNLMS Johan de Witt didn't have a helicopter on board. This time the Dutch will be sending 2 Cougars (that have been training for this during excersice Cold Response 2012), along with a Scan Eagle.

And they will send in another submarine. And some extra marines. 

So from September-December the Dutch presence is substantial.

But the kicker.....from September-December the Dutch will be leading a Standing NATO Maritime Group for Operation Ocean shield from their LPD, and the sub is also in the area after a NATO request.

So will the Dutch do what they did when freeing the MV Taipan, and temporarily put their ship under national command (or EU command), so they can tackle those pirates ashore?

Another Dutch Sub To Horn Of Africa

In 2010 the Dutch deployed a submarine to the Horn Of Africa after a request from NATO. And while most newspapers focused on the lack of Dutch surface vessels around the Horn of Africa, after HNLMS Zuiderkruis left for retirement (the next surface vessel to go is HNLMS Van Amstel),  there is a Dutch vessel in the area: HNLMS Dolfijn, join operation Ocean Shield.

In 2010 the Dutch sub was 4 months away from her homeport, this time the sub will stay for 8 months. After 4 months the Dutch will rotate crews.

This means the Dutch should have 3 vessels in the area in May: HNLMS Dolfijn, HNLMS Van Amstel and HNLMS Tromp.

And while the sub will gather important information, it is general a very boring operation for the crew. Lying a couple of miles from the Somali cost, watching through a periscope, for days on is more like a police stake out and not as exciting as trying to sneak past enemy warships.

Highlight for the crew the last time a Dutch sub was off the Somali coast was seeing a vessel leave for the sea, after which HMS Montrose sent a Lynx to stop the suspected pirates.

And the information gathered is important in two ways: for operation Ocean Shield and EU Navfor on one side, and for the Dutch on the other.
It is important for the Dutch, because they can trade their intelligence with others who have intelligence they want. In 2010 they did an intellegence exchange with the USA. The USA got intelligence on Somalia, we got intelligence on Afghanistan.

And only recently the Dutch and Germans formed a Joint Investigation Team to tackle the problem of piracy in the HoA.

The old saying is still true: there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Dutch VPD vs. Somali Pirates

Yesterday  around 6.00 CET pirates in a fishing vessel attacked the MV Flintstone  93NM north east of the island of Socotra.
The pirates in their dhow where seen coming and the crew of the Flintstone went into hid in a special compartment of the ship. Meanwhile the Dutch Vessel Protection Detachment, consisting of marines, prepared for the arrival of the skiff that came from the dhow, that was being used as a mother ship.

At first the VPD fired flares at the coming ship, in which they could see several weapons including a RPG. When this RPG was aimed at the Flintstone the marines answered with direct fire, forcing the skiff to return to the dhow.

What I don't understand is the choice of the pirates to attack the MV Flinstone. Their intelligence must be lacking.

After the report of the Wijkerslooth Commission, the Dutch decided to make 50 VPDs available to protect vulnerable, Dutch owned, vessels.
And they sometimes announce names of ships which will have a VPD on board. And yes, from 2 weeks ago: the Flintstone will have a VPD on board.

Next Step In European Sea Based Ballistic Missile Defence Taken

The Dutch have decided to go ahead with modifying the SMART-L radar on board their Zeven Provinciën class frigates for ballistic missile defence.

And why I'm calling it the next European step is because the Germans are using them as well, as will Denmark when their Ivar Huitfeldt class will be operational. And the derivative S-1850 is in use by the UK, France and Italy. So that's 6 European countries, with between them 14 active ships and a planned total of 24.

In November and December 2006 HNLMS Tromp joined an American tracking excercise to test a software modification that would allow for the tracking of ballistic missiles. That test was succesfull. The range of the SMART-L during the 2006 test was around 480km (300 miles). This was up from a instrumented range of 400km. The Dutch MoD is now using maps showing a 2000km (1250 miles) range. That means that the Dutch can effectively guard the whole of Europe alone with their 4 ships.

So why has it taken so long to take this step?
I think the answer is quite simple: money.

The Dutch have been trying to get the above mentioned countries aboard, with the Germans being the most serious partners and Denmark as an observer. Recently France has also indicated they are interested.
Meanwhile we were also funding Thales' I-Mast, to be used on the Holland class OPV. Certain parts developed for the I-Mast can also be used in the SMART-L modification.
The Dutch apparently didn't want to wait any longer and have decided to go ahead and see who will join them eventually.

Modifications will be done during regular maintenance on the ships. That means one ship a year, starting in 2017.

Next thing would be buying SM-3's, but as of yet the Dutch haven't decided to buy them.

Footage Of Dutch Freeing Pirated Vessel

On April 2 the Dutch rescued an Iranian vessel from Somali pirates.

The MoD has now released footage of that rescue, during which 2 pirates were killed after they opened fire on the Dutch sailors.

Piracy: Spain Sentences, Denmark Releases, The Netherlands Prosecutes

A Spanish judge has ruled in the case against 2 Somali pirates that were caught in 2009 after they held a tuna fishing boat and its 36 crew members for 47 days.

A Spanish court has sentenced two Somali pirates to 439 years in jail each for their role in the hijacking of a tuna fishing boat.

Maximum time to serve in Spain is 30 years.
The pirates have also been ordered to pay €100k to every crew member. Like that is going to happen.

This Sunday Denmark put 15 Somali men back on shore, after the Public Prosecuter found no grounds for prosecution.

The Dutch, on the other hand, have decided to prosecute 9 of the 16 men captured when they freed an Iranian fishing dhow. The 9 will be charged with piracy and the use of firearms.

The Dutch Military In Action...Against Cuts

For (most) foreign soldiers it's a strange concept, but in the Netherlands there are several military Labor Unions.

And when the plans of the current Dutch government became known, they started organising small scale action meetings to get attention for the consequences of those plans. The first was on December 10 on Volkel AFB.

After that came a surprise. At a demonstration in the Dutch seat of government, the Hague, for all employers in the public sector a lot of soldiers were present in uniform. That was something I had never seen before.

When the actual cuts were presented, different military unions (7) decided to join forces. They have organised 30 local action meetings and set up a website and twitter account.

And while soldiers aren't allowed to strike, they have decided they will stop with all the volunteer work they do. And they do a LOT.
Also, they will do rule-book slowdowns. This could have consequences for Rotterdam and Eindhoven airport, that are also military airports and civilian flights could be delayed because of it.

All this should culminate in something quite unusual: a large action in the Hague on May 26, before the House of Representatives will discuss the budget cuts in June.

Cutting the Dutch armed forces

I posted earlier about the coming budget cuts (€1 billion on a €8.5 billion budget) for the Dutch armed forces. At that moment I didn’t have the time to do a follow up on that piece, but here it is.

I have to say that the result isn't as bad as I suspected for the Navy, as far as material goes. The personnel cut is an entirely different matter.
The army has been hit hardest and all the MBT's will be sold.
And there was a surprise as well. The number of F-16's will be cut to 68 (from 87), but 4 MALE's will be bought. And although it isn’t mentioned anywhere, it will be Predators.

Consequences for the Navy
So yes, the Dutch will loose 2 OPV's, but they will have 2 more OPV's than they have now. Most likely customer for these 2 OPV's: Oman.

The JSS (or big honking ship if you're Canadian) has survived the budgets cuts, but 2 AORs will disappear. One was already heading out anyway, because it's 35 years old and with the current size of the Dutch Navy, we just do not need 2 supply ships.
Anyone thinking that HNLMS Amsterdam would be kept when the JSS would be ready was delirious. Biggest problem is that the Netherlands will have to do a year without any resupply ship.
Customers: for HNLMS Zuiderkruis it's probably the scrapheap, or we give her away to Pakistan, who operate her sister vessel. HNLMS Amsterdam was commissioned in 1995 so has plenty of life left. Canada is looking at the Spanish Patino class as a possible replacement for their aging Protecteur class, they might be interested, since the ships are sisters. They were the result of a cooperation between Spanish BAZAN and Dutch NEVESBU.

The biggest reduction in numbers is with the MCM vessels (from 10 to 6). With 6 we're at the minimum number of vessels needed. The North Sea is still riddled with unexploded ordinance, but truth be told, most are found by fishers in their nets and not the Dutch Navy.
Consequence of this cut is that there are not enough vessels to permanently have one available for international missions, like Libya where HNLMS Haarlem is out minehunting after the French discovered Libyan vessels laying mines. Customers: most likely Eastern European countries.

So the end result is: from 27 major surface ships to 24. That's way better than I was expecting. If measured by gross tonnage, whe're talking negligible differences. It's less than 1,000 tons on a 100,000+ ton Navy.

Defence Helicopter Command
Going from 4 different types of helicopters (Chinook, Cougar, Lynx, NH90) to just two (Chinook and NH90) is about the smartest thing to do. And while on paper the total number of helicopters will be reduced from 44 to 37, that doesn't paint the right picture.

The Dutch might have 14 Lynx' on paper, but only 10 are serviceable. The Cougars are even worse with 17 on paper and 6 serviceable. And the Netherlands might have received 2 NH90's, but those are undergoing tests at the moment and are not actually deployed on their intended tasks. So that's actually 27 serviceable helicopters that can be used.

With the Chinook fleet rising to 17 and the NH90 to 20, it should become 37. And with those 37 helis you should be able to actually transport 888 troops, compared to the 883 paper figure right now.

Conclusion
Well it might not be the future people had in mind a year ago, but for the Navy and the Defence Helicopter Command it isn't as bad as I was expecting.
The ever declining numbers of vessels does mean even less places the Netherlands can go to at the same time.

This isn't the end, because now discussions in Parliament are beginning, with left wing parties focussing on the job loss and right wing parties on the loss of equipment.

And a final note. If you understand Dutch, for the fun of it you should first read the last chapter of the document sent to Parliament and then the rest. For those who don't understand Dutch, this is the picture you would get when reading it this way:
The world isn't getting any safer, we intend to cut gut the armed forces.

That's what you get when accountants (the Ministry of Finance) effectively run the armed forces.

Dutch Defence Cuts

Recently marineschepen.nl published an article dedicated to the size of the Dutch fleet from 1945 untill now.
As with other Western navies, it showed that the Royal Netherlands Navy keeps getting fewer ships at its disposal. What it did not show was that, in line with other Western navies, total displacement of the fleet remained about the same.

This Friday the Dutch MoD will anounce the consequences of the €1 billion cuts, on a current budget of €8.5 billion. So expect even less vessels and a decline in displacement.

Which service branches will be affected?
All of them, because 10,000 jobs will be cut.

But looking at what equipment will be axed the main question to be answered is: what kind of operations will the Netherlands be doing the next 10 years?
Without giving a specific answer to that question, I think there are three things will stand out. The first is that the Netherlands will do operations where speed is important. The second is that the Netherlands will carry out operations where having enough transport capability is important. The third type are long-term commitments without any footprint in another country's territory.
What the Dutch will do a lot less, are protracted operations with many ground troops.

Given the desire for speed, the Air Force should be spared from cuts, just as the Defence Helicopter Command.
Given the desire regarding transportation and footprint, the Navy should be spared from cuts.

To me, it seems logical that the bulk of the cuts will affect the Army. The army units that focus on speed (Air Assault) should, however, be spared.

But Dutch politicians are renowned for not choosing, so there will probably be proportional cuts over all branches.

Consequences for the Navy
But what if the Navy is not spared, where will the cuts be?
To answer that question you must ask a different question than you initially might think. Don't ask: what could be cut? The question is: What cannot be cut?

I think it's this:

• Mine countermeasure
• Zeven Provincien class
• Helicopters
• Submarines

This is the most crucial equipment for the navy, essential to defend the Kingdom's interests. Moreover, with this fleet strength anything even slightly resembling "ambition" (participating in enforcing the no-fly zone in Libya or have a vessel permanently involved in the anti-piracy mission in Somalia) can be discarded as fairytales.

The latest signs are that the submarines will be spared (a very expensive part of the navy) and that they will at least lose some MCM vessels and 2 of the Holland class OPV's that have to be build. A more logical choice would be the M-class frigates, because that would mean a 4-4 force instead of a 4-2-2 which is more expensive to maintain. But that's problematic because of agreements with other countries that have M-class frigates, in particular Belgium.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands
This "Kingdom's interests" I mentioned above, is also something most politicians forget. The armed forces are to defend the Kingdom's interests and not just the Dutch interests. And part of that Kingdom (and nowadays some of the Netherlands' municipalities too) is on the other side of the Atlantic. There the direct (war) threat is much greater. And if you want to defend (the interests of) the Kingdom of the Netherlands over there (should it ever be necessary), then you'll want to act fast and with a lot of equipment.
And so we came back to my first question about what kind of operations the Netherlands will be doing in the future and the assets needed to do that.

Foreign Affairs
The Netherlands is the 16th economy in the world and has the 8th largest financial sector. That's why they are always trying to get invited for G20 summits, although they are not an official member. They always succeeded, until the decision was made to draw down from Afghanistan. And now they are going back, they suddenly are back at the G20 table.

That's how it works in the real world. If you want to be taken seriously in the international arena, you'll have to back up your economic might with military power. So the Dutch better be prepared to become less relevant and all those in Parliament had better realise this (and I'm sure they don't want to acknowledge it, even if they do realise it) and downgrade their international ambitions.

Wrong choices
All this of course on the premesis that there WILL be savings, because in the current world where the Armed Forces are increasingly being deployed both domestically as well as abroad, the defence budget should be raised significantly, as well as the Homogeneous Budget for International Cooperation (HGIS), which pays for most of the deployments of the Armed Forces.

Moreover, the Dutch have a saying: to prevent is better than to cure. In today's world that implies a frequent deployment of the military in order to support other countries before it is too late. Soft power deployments, like Africa Partnership Station.

Conclusion
But an increase in budget will not happen, because that would jeopardise Parliamentary seats in the next elections, and personal interests of politicians are always more important than the interests of the Kingdom.

It reminded me of this quote (attributed to Jefferson, Churchill or Lincoln depending on the source) that was in the latest magazine of the (Dutch) Royal Society of Navy Officers:

A statesman thinks about the future generation, a politician thinks about the next election.

Unfortunately the Netherlands lacks statesmen.

I have to admit that, somewhere, I hope the time comes the Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs will have to tell Parliament: "There will be no humanitarian mission, because the capabilities that are needed have been cut" or even better "We can not evacuate Dutch citizens, because we do not have the proper assets to do that anymore."

HNLMS Tromp Rescues Iranian Fishing Vessel

Yesterday HNLMS Tromp freed an Iranian fishing vessel that had been captured by Somali pirates.

When 2 RHIBs approached a suspect fishing dhow they were shot at. Marines in the RHIBs and marksmen from the Tromp returned the fire. After the RHIBs went in for a second approach 10 pirates tried to flee in a skiff. Firing warning shots stopped the skiff from escaping and the pirates, several of them injured, were taken on board the Tromp.

The remaining pirates in the dhow were surrendering after that. On board of the Iranian fishing dhow were it's 16 crewmembers and 8 Somali pirates, 2 of whom were dead. They were most likely killed during the previous firefight.

During the action another pirated vessel came to try and retake the just freed dhow. That vessel left the scene after warning shots from the Tromp.

The 16 pirates are now on board the Tromp.

Dutch Navy Personnel Released By Libya

The crew of the Dutch helicopter, who were captured by pro-Kadhafi forces have been released and are now in Athens.

I have to admit it surprises me they were released this quickly, after their capture on the 27th of February.

Dutch Helicopter Crew: What Now?

While the 2 people that the Dutch Lynx were supposed to rescue were handed to the Dutch embassy by the Libyan authorities (and are now back in Europe), the 3 crew members have not.

A question often asked, even by so called 'experts', is why there were no marines on board the helicopter. While HNLMS Tromp has marines on board, most likely special forces from the Unit Interventie Mariniers, the Lynx is a very small helicopter. You just can't get that many people in a Lynx.

So how soon will the crewmembers be released?
Since the Netherlands is not at war with Libya, international law forbids this type of operations without prior approval of the 'host' country.
The Swiss and Bulgarians have some experience with the time it takes to get their citizens back from Libya. So it might be a while before these 3 are back in the Netherlands.

However, it is a good sign Libyan state television didn't show the captured crew until the Dutch MoD announced the capture themselves. That was 4 days after it happened.
The MoD's hand was forced by a major Dutch newspaper, that made it front page news on Thursday.

But now the cat is out of the bag the crew are perfect propaganda material for Khadafi towards his countrymen to show them (western) foreigners are involved. And they can be used as leverage, both towards the Netherlands as well as the EU.

Khadafi might try to pressure the Netherlands to get the International Criminal Court, which has its seat in The Hague, to drop their investigation into him and his clan. Since the Dutch don't control the ICC, chances of this happening are slim. The Dutch should try to convince him of this and instead try to get him to understand that a swift release will benefit him if it would ever come to a case at the Court.

He can also use them to get the Netherlands and the EU to lessen its sanctions.

What is lucky, at this moment, is that the Dutch know the Libyans pretty well since they had to work with them after the plane crash in Tripoli this past May.

Also, a couple of Dutch soldiers aren't as 'valuable' as Americans, French or British soldiers.

The current Dutch ambassador in Tripoli does have some experience in negotiating with dictators, since he was involved in the release of Dutch people held by Saddam Hussein prior to the first Gulf War. But those weren't soldiers

A military rescue operation is a last resort. It would require intelligence and the failure of this mission suggests that the intelligence the Dutch have is not very good. And the crewmembers are most likely held at 3 different locations, making it all that harder to pull off.

Then what is the quickest way to get these soldiers back in the Netherlands?
The fall of Khadafi, this weekend. How to achieve that is another matter.

The Netherlands To Prosecute More Pirates

The Dutch attorney general has decided to prosecute 5 alleged Somali pirates, who were apprehended by HNLMS Amsterdam last week.

These 5 men are being suspected of hijacking the South African yacht Choizil, as well as the abduction of 2 South Africans on board the yacht on November 7. One person on board the yacht escaped and provided valuable information about the hijackers.
The 5 men were part of a group of 20, picked up by HNLMS Amsterdam during two seperate actions on 19 and 24 November.

And while there have been talks with South Africa about the suspects, they where apparently unable or unwilling to try these men, who are now being flown to the Netherlands with a KDC-10 from the Dutch air force.

Earlier this year a Dutch judge sent 5 Somali men to prison for hijacking a Netherlands Antilles flagged vessel.
But this will be the first time that a western nation will prosecute pirates that attacked a foreign-flagged vessel in the Somali bassin.

HNLMS Johan de Witt and soft power

HNLMS Johan de Witt ended her tasks of the Somali coast on June 29.

Just before her return to Den Helder she did a little soft power.

First it's crew gave a training session on the 17th for 50 members of the Yemeni Coast Guard. The CO of the ship, Ben Bekkering, said that having the landing craft enabled them to let the Yemenites do things on their own.

On June 24 Somali elders from Xhabo met with Dutch navy personnel aboard one of the LPD's landing craft. They told that local villagers are also at risk from the pirates, who confiscate boats from the local fishermen and rob the locals.

The village of Xhabo does not have any medically trained inhabitants, so the crew of the Johan de Witt organised a possibility for the locals the get medical treatment aboard one of the landing craft. It had to be done this way because the EU mandate does allow for operations on land. So on the 28th 73 people went to the landing craft by skiff to receive medical treatment.

The next Dutch ship off the Somali coast will be HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën, a frigate, that is already on her way. She will lead SNMG2 in NATO operation Ocean
shield.
That means wainting for another LPD untill September, when the Spanish will send SPS Galicia, a sister of the Johan de Witt, to Somalia. We'll have to wait and see if they will use the same tactics with their landing craft as the Dutch have used.

And I'll also use this blogpost to give kudos to the PR department of the Dutch MoD for the amount of attention they generated in announcing the Netherlands will send submarine HNLMS Walrus to Somalia, following a NATO request. I'm still wondering why it is that newsworthy.

(And for tho who want to sea the landing craft in operation and hear an explanation from the CO and the Dutch Minister of Defence (in English!) about the tasks the LPD performed: a video.)

Deepwater Horizon: Dutch Point Of View

In Dutch media I'm reading an increasing criticism regarding the response to the oil spill in the Mexican Gulf and the use of their expertise and equipment.

So, first, the timeline according to the Dutch press and press-releases from Dutch companies and governments:

• April 25. Only 3 days after the accident with the oil platform the Dutch offered their skimmers to combat the oil spill. According to the Dutch consul-general in Housten the reaction of the American government was that help was not needed, because they could handle it themselves.

• May 6. Dutch research institute Deltares and dredging company Van Oord propose an inovative concept to combat the oil spill. The US government has been alerted to the existence of this proposal through the contacts that have been established between the 2 governments since hurricane Katrina.

• May 12. Jo Ellen Darcy, the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works), visits Deltares.

Although this must be a visit that has been planned months in advance, I would expect the visit would now focus heavily on the concept proposed on 6 May.

• May 28. The Dutch have offered 3 sets of sweeping arms, after a US request. T&T Marine Salvage, which has been hired by BP, will use these skimmers. They should be operational next week.

• June 16. Boskalis has gotten a contract to deliver sand to make barriers to protect the Lousiana coast, based on the proposal from May 6.

In my opinion this is pretty fast. Two bad choices had to be weighed carefully, but doing nothing would guarantee an ecological disaster and this might help without creating an ecological disaster. Deltares and Boskalis must have been astounded at the speed of which it went, since they are more used to the speed Dutch governments work at.

And now for the critique.
One thing that always pops up is the Jones Act, or more correctly Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act from 1920. In practice the Act means that foreign vessels can't be employed in the oil spill.
Boskalis has a local company, Stuyvesant Dredging with a US flagged ship, so that's how they were able to get a contract.

The US thinks that the sand barriers will take 9 months to be completed, but Belgian dredgers claim they can do it in 4. They also say the Jones Act is the reason the US is using antiquated technology to combat the oil spill. The European companies, of which the Dutch and Belgians ones are seen as the best in the field by most, buy their ships in the Middle East for only halve the cost of building it in the US.

The company that manufactures the skimmers that have been sent, has said that had the US allowed them from the beginning to use their skimmers they could have done this clean-up with their eyes closed. This is because the skimmers have the capacity to clean up the amount of oil that is leeking in 7 hours.
They also say the USCG was well aware of the skimmers and have visited the company 3 times in the past.

But now the skimmers are in use, the company that manufactures them says they are not being used right. They say communication with the Americans is going slowly and they do not listen to the Dutch instructors. Currently only 5% of their actual capacity is being used, because BP is sending the ships too close to the source. The problem is that the oil is not very thick there, reducing the effectiveness of the skimmers.
The communication between the USCG, BP and T&T Marine could also be a lot better, the Dutch company says. Now it is 'too many chiefs, not enough indians'.
Cargo capacity is also a problem, and because of the Jones Act, foreign ships with a cargo capacity 3 times that of US ships cannot be deployed.

From what I read in the Dutch (and to a lesser extend Belgian) press it reminds me of hurricane Katrina in 2 ways. The first is that the inital US response was: help is not needed.
The second is that it is unclear who is in charge, at least for those on this side of the Atlantic who want to help.

What surprises me, is the huge say BP seems to still have in the way the operation goes. I would expect the USCG to have hired T&T Marine Salvage to use the skimmers and just forward the bill to BP.

Using some replenishment oilers from the MSC should easily solve the problem of the cargo capacity.

Dutch Court Ruling On Alleged Somali Pirates

Instead of having to translate the verdict myself, the Court was kind enough to make an English press release, which is below.
The short version: all 5 men have been sentenced to 5 years in jail.

Judgement case Somali pirates

Today the district court of Rotterdam rendered judgement in the case of five Somali men suspected of piracy. They were arrested in the Gulf of Aden on 2 January 2025 by a Danish naval vessel at an attack of the Samanyolu, flying under the flag of the Netherlands Antilles. They were transferred to the Netherlands on 10 February 2024 for trial.

The defences put forward by the lawyers to bar the prosecutor have not been granted. One of the questions to be answered in that respect was whether the Dutch court has jurisdiction in this case. According to the court this is the case, now that the Netherlands has vested so-called universal jurisdiction in the Criminal Code for cases of piracy on open sea. This national regulation is not contrary to international conventions.

The Court agrees with the lawyers that it took too long before the suspects were brought before a judge after their arrest. In this case this was 40 days. That could and should have been done earlier. This constitutes a breach of article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, no consequences follow from this in these criminal proceedings.

All 5 suspects are pronounced guilty as charged. It is proved that they went out to sea in a small boat, heavily armed, with the plan to hijack a ship. No credence was given to their statements that they only committed violence out of self-defence against an attack by the Samanyolu crew.

The judgement emphasizes that piracy in the Gulf of Aden forms a serious threat for international shipping and that this should be dealt with firmly. The unfavourable circumstances in Somalia, both in a general sense and concerning the suspects personally, have not been accepted as a justification for acts of piracy.

All 5 suspects have received a 5-year prison sentence. The sentence is lower than the 7 years demanded. Although to a minor extent, it has been taken into consideration that in other comparable cases the arrested suspects were released and will not be tried. It has furthermore been taken into consideration that detention in the Netherlands forms a heavy burden on the suspects, who are far from home and can not, or hardly, maintain contact with their families in Somalia.