MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is...

"I signed a directive today on sending our investigators to the Somalia region, where they will open criminal cases and conduct probes into crimes committed by pirates in order to arrest them and put them on trial under Russian law," the head of the Investigation Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General"s Office, Alexander Bastrykin, told reporters in Moscow.

He did not say where the investigators would be based.

Somalia has been without an effective government since the Revolutionary Socialist Party was overthrown in 1991. The internationally recognized federal government controls only the capital city of Mogadishu and part of central Somalia, and cannot effectively fight sea piracy in the region.

According to the United Nations, Somali pirates collected $150 million in ransom payments from ship owners last year, while overall losses from piracy were estimated at $13-16 billion, including the soaring cost of insurance and protection for vessels, as well as

Pages: [1] 2