Somaliland warns will not take in foreign-seized pirates

(AFP) – 1 day ago

HARGEISA, Somalia — Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland on Tuesday inaugurated a UN-funded prison aimed at holding pirates but also warned it was not yet accepting those detained by foreign powers.
The prison in the region's capital Hargeisa was refurbished by the United Nations at a cost of about $1.5 million (1.06 million euros) with the aim of making conditions there acceptable to countries wishing to repatriate Somali pirates.
But the region has backed away from accepting pirates seized by foreign forces, in what is likely to prove the latest setback to attempts by the international community to repatriate Somali pirates arrested on the high seas to east Africa or the Horn of Africa for trial.
"The transfer issue has not yet been accepted," Ismail Moummir Aar, the Somaliland justice minister, told reporters during a visit to the region by a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) team headed by its director Yury Fedotov.Continued