Ship captain reported 'executed'
PIRATES executed a ship’s captain after he resisted capture off the coast of West Africa, Fairplay can confirm today.
“A guerrilla attack on a commercial vessel retaliated on the captain and executed him, a source delivering a high-level briefing on piracy told Fairplay. “We are worried about the transfer [of piracy] from East Africa to West Africa.”
The Greek ministry of shipping named the captain as Theodoros Mastaloudis.
A news agency report said yesterday that pirates had killed a Greek master of an unnamed ship on Saturday off the coast of Cameroon but gave no details.
His vessel have come to the rescue of another ship being attacked by pirates, Reuters reported on Monday.
A senior naval officer told Fairplay that East African pirates appeared previously to follow a code of conduct in which they do not harm or abuse crews.
“We are worried about this," the officer confirmed, "if they stop working to the same code. If the pirate business model works, then other people will copy it. And it will spread.”
Naval officers pointed that pirates have in the past killed other pirates for breaching this code.