Chandlers' pirate captors thought to have families in Britain

by David Williams/Sail-World Cruising on 27 Nov 2010 In a demonstration of just how complex the murky world of the Somali pirate is, it has now been revealed that some of the pirates who held British cruising sailors Paul and Rachel Chandler for over a year may have families - wives and children - living back in Britain.

Two members of the Somali pirate gang that held them are now believed to have family in Britain. Both men are said to have received a ‘cut’ of the estimated £625,000 ransom paid for the release of the Chandlers. One of the pirate leaders says he plans to travel to the UK to join his wife and two children, who have claimed political asylum and live in London.

The extraordinary revelations come as intelligence and security officials in the UK and Kenya investigate links between Britain and Somali pirates after the couple were freed from the 13-month ordeal in return for a ransom.

It was the Somali community in Britain that campaigned heavily for the release of the couple, and a key figure in assisting the investigation is likely to be Dahir Abdullahi Kadiye, a 56-year-old former minicab driver from East London, who played a significant role in securing the couple’s release.

Mr Kadiye, a father of two, who came to Britain from Somalia in 1997 as a refugee and has UK citizenship, met with the pirates and their representatives for six months trying to broker a deal to free the Chandlers.
Mr Kadiye, who is beginning a security company and travels regularly between the UK and Somalia, said he became involved for ‘humanitarian reasons’ and was hailed as a hero on his return to Britain.

Investigators say the new revelations raise the possibility of pirates travelling to Britain and of part of the ransom money being transferred to family members in the UK.

Their warnings come just weeks after Home Secretary Theresa May highlighted the links between British extremists and Somalia, with some UK citizens travelling there to train alongside Al Qaeda-linked groups. Anti-terrorist investigators believe some have returned to Britain and they have been looking at associations between the UK and pirate gangs, who currently hold some 40 ships and 500 crew hostage.

The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were seized as they sailed their yacht in the Indian Ocean, near the Seychelles, on October 23, 2009, and held in the harsh Somali bushland by heavily armed pirates.

They are recovering with their family, who paid part of the ransom, and will be questioned about their time in captivity and specifically the role and identities of individual pirates. The couple will be shown intelligence photographs – and those from videos taken during their time in the hands of the pirates – to see if any can be identified by name and the roles they played.

Satellite and other telephone calls, together with emails sent from Somalia by suspects to the UK are also being examined and it is understood the identities of several of the gang are known.

Immigration investigators are now involved in the inquiry into their British links and seeking to discover whether individuals have visited the UK or have families here. ‘It is possible that some of those involved in piracy have British or other European citizenship and that is a worrying area which we are exploring,’ one investigator said.

In satellite calls, the pirates have alluded to links with Britain and a man named as Hassan, 32 – said to be one of the ringleaders of the Chandler abduction – was quoted as saying he had a wife and family in the UK and was planning to join them. He claimed his family had moved to London three years ago, applying for political asylum.

‘She is putting me under pressure to join her and the children, so I will come to the UK soon,’ he said in one telephone call. ‘I am not looking forward to the cold weather, though, and I am worried that women are more powerful in the UK – I don’t know how long I will stay.’