A pirate believed to be a key member of the gang that kidnapped Paul and Rachel Chandler is under arrest in Kenya.
The Daily Mail can reveal the Somali was picked up in the Indian Ocean along with five other suspected pirates.
It is the first arrest in the case and two Scotland Yard anti-terror officers have flown to Nairobi to liaise with authorities there.
The suspect, who is believed to be in his teens, is thought to have guarded the Chandlers during their year’s captivity.
The couple from Tunbridge Wells in Kent spoke graphically about their ordeal in a series of Daily Mail interviews, revealing they were threatened by a young member of the pirate gang.
They were freed in November following the payment of £450,000 and supplied descriptions and names of their captors.
It is likely that a photograph of the man detained by the Kenyans will be shown to the Chandlers for identification.
It is not known which navy intercepted the boat he was in.
Last night security sources insisted the two UK officers did not interview any suspects during their visit to Kenya last week.
Scotland Yard released a brief statement saying: ‘We can confirm that Metropolitan Police officers travelled to Kenya where they met officials and held discussions.’
A key figure in the investigation is likely to be Dahir Abdullahi Kadiye, a 56-year-old former minicab driver from East London who helped secure the couple’s release.
Mr Kadiye, a father of two, who arrived from Somalia in 1997 as a refugee and now has UK citizenship, met with the pirates and their representatives during six months trying to broker a deal to free the Chandlers.
If the suspect being held in Kenya is charged it is not clear where he would be put on trial.
Unlike some European countries, Britain has not staged any trials of alleged Somali pirates and an agreement between Kenya and the EU to try suspects expired at the end of last month.
The suspected pirate would be able to seek asylum in Britain only if he stood trial in the UK.
If he was convicted by a British court, lawyers could argue at the end of sentence that the man would face persecution in his homeland of Somalia – because of the fact he had been imprisoned in the UK.
The government does not deport to war-torn Somalia, which has an appalling human rights record.
It is possible, but investigators believe unlikely, that the pirate could seek asylum in Kenya, Somalia’s neighbour.
Kenya has jailed 26 suspects captured at sea off Somalia and 84 are awaiting trial.
Meanwhile international investigators have uncovered evidence of the European connections of the Somali pirate clans and at least five have family living in the UK.
One 32-year-old member of the gang that held the Chandlers, who were seized at gunpoint as they sailed their yacht near the Seychelles in October 2008, has boasted of planning to join his wife and two children in London. He said his family had claimed political asylum in UK and investigators believe at least two more pirate families plan to do the same.
A member of a gang responsible for seizing two tankers last year is said to have a wife, children and sister in the UK. Investigators have been studying hundreds of satellite and mobile telephone calls made between Somalia and the UK and believe ransom money is being sent to contacts in the UK and Europe.
Somali piracy has become big business with more than £60million in ransoms paid last year and the average payment rising from £100,000 in 2005 to £3.3million last year.
In the first three weeks of this year 25 ships have been attacked and five captured with an estimated 700 crew.
Twenty-eight vessels are being held in the coastal pirate towns of Haradheere and Hobyo.
It is estimated that the annual cost of piracy to the world economy is in excess of £5billion in additional insurance, security, naval escort vessels and ships having to take longer routes.
Home Secretary Theresa May has highlighted the links between British extremists and Somalia saying some UK citizens travel there to train alongside groups that are linked to Al Qaeda. Anti-terrorist investigators believe some have returned to Britain and they have been specifically investigating associations between the UK and the ever increasing number of pirate gangs.
Giving a stark warning about the terror threat from the Horn of Africa during a speech in November, Mrs May said: ‘We know that people from this country have already gone to Somalia to fight.
‘It seems highly likely, given experience elsewhere, that if left to their own devices we would eventually see British extremists, trained and hardened on the streets of Mogadishu, returning to the UK and seeking to commit mass murder on the streets of London.’
Terrorists originally from the region have already tried to strike in Britain forming part of the failed July 21 bomb cell that tried to carry out attacks on London’s transport system in 2005.
The Chandlers declined to comment on the arrest when contacted last night.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
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