VLADIVOSTOK. June 11. VOSTOK-MEDIA – Recently Russian media disseminated information that Cameroon pirates had demanded a ransom of $1.5 million for release of Boris Tersintseva, the captain of the vessel captured by pirates. However, Primorye experts offered no comments on the issue.
“I’ve heard about the sum the pirates demanded but I think that the ransom is unusually high,” Pyotr Osichansky, an inspection officer at International Transport Workers Federation, said. “I don’t want to give any comment on the situation. I’d only say that typically pirates reduce an initial ransom demanded after negotiations. ”
On May 16, pirates attacked cargo ship North Spirit off the coast of Cameroon and kidnapped two Russian sailors: Boris Tersintsev, of Vladivostok, and chief engineer Igor Shumik, of Arkhangelsk.
Reporting on the huge ransom for the release of the two seamen Russian media cited Jour, a Cameroon news agency. Gazeta.ru news website quoted a local militant based in Bayelsa State as saying that “the hostages won’t be released until the ship owners pay $1.5 million ransom”.
The negotiations over release of seamen have almost come to a standstill as still more pirates join the dialogue in an attempt to raise the ransom as much as possible, Jour reported. The pirates forced Tersintsev to get in touch with the ships owners and tell them how badly they are being treated. The captain said that they are being held in a mangrove forest without clean drinking water.