The Georgian captain of a cargo ship that was released by Somali pirates said Tuesday his Georgian-Turkish crew had suffered through "infernal torment" during its 18-month captivity.
"We have gone through an infernal torment, starvation, thirst. All this time we have been on a leash, like animals," captain Memed Zakaradze told Georgia's Rustavi 2 television by telephone from an unspecified location.
"But we did not lose hope for even a second," he said.
Armed raiders boarded the Malta-flagged cargo ship in the piracy-plagued area off the Gulf of Aden in September 2010 and seized the crew of 15 Georgians and three Turks.
The ship had been on its final voyage to India to be scrapped and its Greek owner had gone into liquidation, leaving the sailors effectively stranded while the pirates demanded $9 million (7.1 million euros) to release the ship.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said the sailors' release Sunday was secured through confidential negotiations whose details he could not disclose at this time.
"Georgia will always fight for its citizens," Saakashvili said on Tuesday in televised remarks.
While...
↧