Thirty-five accused Somali pirates arrived in Mumbai, India on Saturday to face trial for hijacking a bulk cargo vessel in the Indian Ocean off Somalia in December.

Naval commandos apprehended the pirates when they retook the Maltese-flagged MV Ruen and rescued its captive crew members on 17 March, some 480 kilometers off the coast of Somalia.

Commandos parachuted out of a military C-17 airplane to board the Ruen and “successfully cornered and coerced” all 35 pirates aboard to surrender in a 40-hour operation, an earlier navy statement said.

The destroyer INS Kolkata involved in the rescue is the same ship that brought the suspected pirates to India.

An Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene saw each of the detained men handcuffed to a police officer and taken into police vans.

All appeared to be in good spirits although some showed signs of slight injury including visible bandages.

The group was expected to be brought before a magistrate later on Saturday.

Navy spokesperson Vivek Madhwal said this week marked the first time in more than a decade that men captured at sea would be brought to Indian shores to face trial for piracy.

Under India’s anti-piracy laws, the men face the death sentence if they are convicted of a killing or an attempted killing, and life imprisonment for piracy alone.

In the process they freed the MV Ruen’s 17 crew members — nine from Myanmar, seven from Bulgaria and one from Angola — none of whom were injured in the rescue.

Bulgarian vessel owner Navibulgar called India’s rescue a “major success.”

Information on the fate of those hijackers has not been publicly released.

Since the start of the Houthi attacks, launched in response to Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, many cargo ships have slowed down far out at sea to await instructions on whether to proceed.

Experts say that has left them vulnerable to attack.                                

WITH AFP