The Seychelles has informed Denmark that it is not prepared to prosecute 25 pirates being held on the Danish warship Absalon after they were caught red-handed on a hijacked fishing vessel with Iranian and Pakistani hostages.

“I have spoken with them this evening, but haven’t yet seen the official papers. But they mention legal issues and base their refusal on the fact that 14 per cent of all prisoners in the Seychelles are Somali pirates,” Thomas Winckler of the Danish Foreign Ministry Legal Service tells Jyllands-Posten.

The pirates have been in the brig on board the Absalon since January 7, when Danish commandos boarded the Tahiri, freed 14 hostages and detained 25 pirates.

Since then, Denmark’s Foreign Ministry has been working to reach agreement with the Seychelles authorities, as the Absalon’s next port of call was Victoria to change crews.

Given that the Seychelles has declined to prosecute, Denmark has only two options left – either to reach agreement with Kenyan authorities, or to release the pirates close to the Somali coast. Denmark does not deliver suspects for prosecution to Pakistan or Iran.

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