Spain refuses to free two captured pirates as demanded by fellow brigands holding a Spanish trawler and 33 crew members off Somalia and reportedly threatening to start killing hostages. Deputy Defense Minister Constantino Mendez said Friday the two Somali men were captured and brought to Madrid because of their alleged role in the hijacking of a Spanish-flagged vessel _ the tuna boat Alakrana, on Oct. 2 in the Indian Ocean.Refering to their being held in custody, he told Spanish National Radio: "The situation is not negotiable."
However, he seemed to leave open a possibility of transferring them to the court system of another country, as Spain did in a similar case in May.
Pirates holding the Alakrana took three crew members ashore to Somalia on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said.
The wives of two crew members who spoke to their husbands Thursday said the pirates are demanding the release of the two in custody in Madrid as a condition for letting the ship and its crew go.
On Thursday night, the skipper of the Alakrana, Ricardo Blach, told Spanish television the heavily armed pirates on board had threatened to kill the three crew members taken ashore if there was no progress in freeing the two men.
"They told us an hour ago that if there is no movement relating to those who are in Spain, then they would begin by killing those three in three days' time, and then they would take another three, and so on," Blach said.
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