Brave ex-London cabbie Dahir Kadiye, 56 – who negotiated the couple’s release – told how a rebel group in the gang plotted to ambush the 4×4 taking them to safety.

ex-London cabbie who helped Paul and Rachel Chandler escape Somali pirates

The breakaway bandits intended to shoot dead their former comrades and demand a SECOND ransom for Dahir and the Chandlers.

In a gripping exclusive interview, Dahir wept as he recalled his despair as last week’s secret mission teetered on the edge of disaster.

He had already endured a terrifying ten-hour wait, during which one of the 15 pirates threatened to blow his head off, before he was taken in darkness to a bush camp where the frightened couple had been held for 388 days.

After embracing, Dahir, Paul and Rachel were packed into a jeep for the dangerous drive to Mogadishu, capital of war-torn Somalia.

Paul and Rachel board climb into a vehicle last week as their nightmare nears its end in dramatic dawn hand over to ex-cabbie Dahir

“During the journey, word reached us that the rebels planned to hijack our vehicle, kidnap all three of us and shoot dead their four fellow pirates.

“I screamed, ‘Oh no, this can’t be happening’. It was a nightmare scenario. I hadn’t gone all that way to Africa to end up as a hostage.

“Rachel and Paul looked mortified. I ordered our driver, ‘Do something. You better do something’.

“He then performed a diversion along a side road to avoid the ambush we knew was on the road ahead. Even after the detour, we could never be sure we were safe.”

Somali-born Dahir flew from his home in Leytonstone, East London, to win freedom for the Chandlers.

Retired civil engineer Paul, 60, and former economist Rachel, 57, were seized in October 2009 from their 38ft yacht the Lynn Rival as they sailed off the Seychelles.

The pirates threatened to kill them unless a ransom was paid.

After watching emotional TV appeals for their release, Dahir’s sons Yusuf, 16, and Liban, 26, urged him to do something.

The former asylum seeker spoke to clan elders in Adado – the village where he grew up, which is close to the pirates’ lair.

Meanwhile a ransom deal had been set up. Relatives of the Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, had earlier arranged for around £282,000 to be dropped from a plane off the coast of Somalia.

The pirates refused to release the couple and upped their demand.

A second payment of around £219,000 raised by the Somali community was dropped near Adado hours before the couple were freed.

On Saturday, November 13, Dahir set off with doctors and elders in a seven-vehicle convoy to collect the hostages.

But they were intercepted by the pirates and found themselves out-gunned and outnumbered.

Dahir choked back tears as he recalled: “I had armed guards because you cannot trust anyone. We were ten kilometres (six miles) from the Chandlers when pirates appeared and demanded we laid down our arms.

“There was a scuffle and they surrounded us, thinking we were going to take the Chandlers by force before they got the ransom.

Paul and Rachel Chandler at Heathrow last Tuesday

“There were 15 to 20 of them and they had AK-47 rifles and Browning handguns.

“I ordered my team to put their weapons down and their hands up. I told the pirates my name and explained my family background.

“One of them piped up, ‘Only him’, meaning me. They wanted me to come with them alone.

“One of my doctors grabbed my arm and said, ‘Don’t go. It’s a trap, they’ll take you hostage as well’.

“But I took the decision in a split second – if I didn’t go, I’d never get to see the Chandlers.”

He went on: “They drove me off into the dark. But then they panicked. They got me out of the vehicle and forced me to stand in the middle of the bush.
“AK-47s were pointed at me. A rifle was put to my head and I was warned what would happen if I double-crossed them.

“I was made to stand in front of them for ten hours from 7pm to 5am. I could hear them arguing.

“One said, ‘He’s double-crossed us. Let’s shoot him dead and leave his body here for the animals’.

“I was too scared to move. A pirate pointed a gun at me and said, ‘You’ll be dead shortly’.

Route brave Dahir took through Somalia

“I started thinking about my family – my wife Zahra and the boys.

“The mission was so dangerous I hadn’t told them what I was doing. I’d said it was a business trip.

“I thought about the good times, the birthdays, the joy on Yusuf’s face when Chelsea scored.

“By 5am, I realised I was either going to save the Chandlers or die.

“Finally the pirates decided I was ok. I tried to walk but my legs were like jelly. I stumbled along.

“When I saw Paul and Rachel, we hugged and wept. I told them, ‘You are free’.”

They were not yet out of danger as the breakaway group tried to ambush them.

But finally they reached the British High Commission in Mogadishu.

Dahir flew home to a hero’s welcome. But hero is not a word he is comfortable with.

He just felt he had to show his gratitude to Britain.

He and his family arrived in the UK as refugees in 1997 and were taken in. He drove a cab before setting up a chauffeuring firm.

Dahir said: “I saved the Chandlers to send a message to the British public – you saved my family.

“We have massive opportunities now and this is the payback.

“I also want people to know not all Somalis are bad. The Chandlers are good people and what happened was an embarrassment.”

Dahir now hopes aid will be channelled into the country to stop youngsters turning to piracy.

He said: “Most pirates are aged 19 to 25, brought up in a lawless country. For 20 years Somalia has been torn apart by civil war. All they know is how to kill and survive. Piracy is a living to them.”

The Chandlers agree. Rachel said yesterday: “People expect us to want those people dead. We don’t.

“Those misguided young men could be helped if they had education instead of brutality.”

She spoke as they thanked everyone who helped in their release.

Dahir went home to a cup of tea with Zahra, 34, after his daring rescue. He added: “I’m not a hero – I just did my bit for Britain.”

His fee for this interview will be donated to the village of Adado.

Original Article Source

Rachel and Paul Chandler held captive by Somali Pirates for more than a year

A former minicab driver who claimed to have masterminded the release of Paul and Rachel Chandler has received a hero’s welcome as he arrived back in the UK.

Dahir Abdullahi Kadiye, 56, was cheered by around 70 members of the British Somali community as he arrived at Heathrow airport.

He was handed flowers by a number of members of the group – some of whom came to the airport from as far away as Liverpool and Leicester.

The Somali Briton was reported to have negotiated the couple’s safe exit from Somali pirates who had held them for more than a year.

Following their release at the weekend, he told Channel 4 News he took on the job of hostage negotiator six months ago after his children said they felt ashamed when they watched the couple’s appeals on television.

Mr Kadiye did not stop to comment about how he organised the Chandlers’ safe release but said: “I’m very tired.” Mr Kadiye, from Leytonstone, east London, is reported to have come to England as a refugee in 1997.

Mohammed Elmi, chairman of community group Somali Diaspora UK, said the crowd gathered to show how proud they were of Mr Kadiye.

“We are delighted to be here to welcome our hero,” he said.

“To meet the couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, and to negotiate is something that is very positive. The Somali community in the UK are very happy the couple are back home, safe and alive.”

The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, have spent their second full day of freedom on UK soil. The retired couple endured a 388-day ordeal which began in October 2009 when their yacht was seized by armed Somali pirates as it sailed from the Seychelles towards Tanzania. Mr and Mrs Chandler, aged 60 and 57 respectively, are expected to hold talks with media advisers to discuss interview deals.

Original source of article

During his time as a hostage Mr Chandler had repeatedly voiced fears for his father, Alfred, who reached the age of 99 in June but did not live to see his son released.

On an internet blog on which they charted their adventures travelling in their yacht the Lynn Rival, they described spending much of the time at Mr Chandler’s home which they described as a “lovely place to relax by the sea.”
In one of the last updates before their disappearance while sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania, they posted a photograph of the sea view from Mr Chandler’s home labelled as “a reminder of Dartmouth”.

Another photograph shows the couple strolling along the seafront at Torcross with Mr Chandler senior, dressed in a coat and hat, resting contentedly on the sea wall, his walking stick loosely in one hand.

A caption read affectionately: “Torcross, after fish and chips with Pa.”

The former civil engineer, he continued to live independently following the death of his wife, despite suffering deafness.

But he passed away in late July, after a spell of ill health, only a few weeks after turning 99.

Although there was some contact between the Chandlers and their family through intermediaries, it was feared it could worsen their anxiety if they were told about the death.

Instead they were given the news shortly after their release on Sunday. In a statement they said they were coming to terms with their loss.

A video sent to relatives in Britain by the family during the summer as proof that they were still alive makes clear the level of Mr Chandler’s concern for his father while in captivity.

“They don’t care about our families whatsoever,” he is heard saying at one point.

“My father – I hope he is still alive I have no idea, he would have been 99 in June theses fellows don’t give a damn.
“They really don’t think we deserve to have a family.”

In a statement issued through the Foreign Office yesterday the couple said: “We have just learned that Paul’s father died in late July, and we obviously need to come to terms with that.
“We will return to the UK very soon.”

Relatives in Britain disclosed that one of the main hurdles they faced in their efforts to secure the Chandlers’ release was the refusal of some pirates to accept that they were not millionaires.

Ransom negotiations broke down several times during the Kent couple’s 388 ordeal because pirate leaders refused to believe that more money could not be raised.

“Throughout the protracted discussions…it has been a difficult task for the family to get across the message that these were two retired people on a sailing trip on a small private yacht,” the couple’s relatives said in a statement.
“[They are] not part of a major commercial enterprise involving tens of millions of pounds of assets.

“Thankfully, common sense finally prevailed and a solution was obtained for their release.”

Pirates who hijack large commercial ships can expect insurance companies swiftly to arrange negotiated payouts averaging £2 million.

But Mr and Mrs Chandler had ploughed their lifesavings into their 38ft yacht, Lynn Rival, and had even sold their house in Tunbridge Wells to fund their retirement on the ocean.

Original source of article

Sometimes a person gets so inspired that they join a worthy cause so they can “make a difference”. I felt compelled to help these two unfortunate people, but had absolutely no idea how. After all, I did’t know them, didn’t know their family or friends, didn’t have any contacts in their homeland of England and certainly didn’t have any knowledge of Somalia or even pirates. Not to mention, Im also almost 10,000 miles away. So, I thought, how could one person from California possibly help?

A few months before this happened, I had read an article about the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips. After a 5 day stand off with Somali pirates, the captain and his crew, along with their cargo ship, were freed with the help of the U.S. Navy. I figured if I attracted the attention of the right people, this too could be resolved quickly. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to use the power of the internet to raise awareness so people with more power than me would feel compelled to step in and offer assistance.

Shortly after I set up this site, more news surfaced about the Chandlers. There were articles about physical abuse and possible executions if demands weren’t immediately met. Amidst all the reports, different figures were published as to the amount of the ransom being requested by the pirates. As I was posting these news articles, the site gained in popularity and attracted more attention that I had anticipated.

On quite a few occasions, I fielded emails from both soldier-of-fortune wannabes and legitimate organizations that were actually qualified to help, albeit for a hefty daily fee. I was also contacted by quite a few people asking the same question, “What can I do to help?”. While it looked like my idea of raising awareness had worked, I began to notice something else which was rather disturbing. It appeared that the pirates were trying to use the media to help increase the Chandlers’ “value” and in turn the amount of their ransom demand. When I discovered this, I realized that posting all the news that was floating around the internet wasn’t such a good idea. I was also convinced, by some well known organizations who deal with this type of activity all the time, that I should be very careful about what I say. After all, the last thing I wanted to do was is to make matters worse so I took some of their advice.

Well, its been 388 days and Im pleased to say:

PAUL AND RACHEL CHANDLER ARE FINALLY FREE!!!

Im sure Paul & Rachel, their family and the viewers of this site are also excited to hear this news! I wish the Chandlers a very happy homecoming and hope they can resume their lives quickly.

For those of you that were also compelled to offer your support through private emails and contributions, THANK YOU! As for the money this site raised, while it was an extremely small amount, it was still successfully used as it was to be intended.

As for who I am now that this is finally over, well, lets just say that Im just an average guy named Scott from California who has learned quite a bit during this journey! I’ve met amazing people along the way and have been enlightened by some of the injustice that occurs outside my countries borders. And, when all that can be revealed is published, I hope that my efforts did more good than harm at helping 2 strangers Ive never met secure their freedom.

“Yesterday evening, we received the wonderful news that Paul and Rachel Chandler were to be released by the Somali pirates who had held them in captivity since October 23, 2009.

The videos that were shown on television earlier this year indicated that they were coping with the conditions and were in relatively good health. But we cannot yet be certain how the difficulties that they have had to endure in recent months will have affected them physically and emotionally. We would ask that everyone gives them the opportunity to adjust and return to their families and friends in the days to come.

Throughout the protracted discussions with the pirates it has been a difficult task for the family to get across the message that these were two retired people on a sailing trip on a small private yacht and not part of a major commercial enterprise involving tens of millions of pounds of assets.

Thankfully, common sense finally prevailed and a solution was obtained for their release in the last few days. There will be the inevitable questions of how their release was achieved. The family believes it would be irresponsible to discuss any aspect of the release process as this could encourage others to capture private individuals and demand large ransom payments, something that we are sure none of us wants.

The family would like to thank those in the Somali community especially, both locally, and in the UK, who did so much to help secure their release.

At 0300hrs GMT on 14th November Paul and Rachel began their journey away from the pirates by road. At approximately 0900 hrs (GMT), after a reception organised by the local administration, they boarded a light aircraft on the airstrip at Adado, for the first leg of their journey to Nairobi. They landed in Mogadishu and were taken by convoy to meet the Prime Minister of the TFG (Transitional Federal Government), Mohamed Abdullah Farmajo. This was followed by an onward flight, crossing the Kenyan border to safety and freedom, arriving at 1440 hrs, London time, their ordeal having lasted 388 days.

Both Paul and Rachel are in good spirits although very tired and exhausted by their experience.

They will now both have medical checks in Nairobi, following which they will fly back to the UK.

All family members would like to thank all the media who have respected the injunction for their cooperation and restraint throughout the ordeal of Paul and Rachel and would ask that this spirit of understanding continues while they are reunited with family and friends. The Family will not be making any further statements until they have had an opportunity to talk with Paul and Rachel on their return.

Paul and Rachel have asked us to thank all those around the country who have offered support during their ordeal and the professional advisors who have worked around the clock to secure their release.

While we continue to remain focused on helping Paul and Rachel obtain their freedom, we are also concerned about the overall piracy activity in the region. Since insurance companies usually settle these cases without much media involvement, the public is unaware of how rampant this situation has become.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) is currently running a big campaign to fight piracy and to persuade governments to commit resources necessary to end the increasing problem of Somalia-based piracy. Below is a link that will take you to a petition to help move this initiative forward. Please consider signing it!

Paul Chandler, a 60-year-old retired civil engineer, said: “I’d like to say congratulations to David Cameron first. And as new prime minister, we desperately need him to make a definitive public statement of the government’s attitude to us.

“If the government is not prepared to help, then they must say so, because the gangsters’ expectations and hopes have been raised at the thought of a new government and there might be a different approach.”

The retired couple from Tunbridge Wells were enjoying the yachting holiday of a lifetime last October when they were kidnapped by pirates in the Indian Ocean just off the Seychelles, hundreds of miles from Somalia.

They have been held for more than seven months and reveal on Channel 4 News tonight that almost half their time in captivity has been spent away from each other in solitary confinement.

At first the pirate gang demanded a huge ransom for their release, though they have since said they are open to negotiation. It is official British government policy not to pay ransoms to kidnappers.

Last Thursday the Chandlers were allowed to talk relatively freely to a freelance Somali journalist, Jamal Osman. The couple were driven to a secret location in windswept Somali scrubland, somewhere between the towns of Adado and Haradhere and miles from any human settlement. The Chandlers were escorted by around 10 pirates travelling in two 4×4 cars, all the men heavily armed and refusing to be filmed.

Yet in the interview, which lasted over an hour, the hostages openly defy their captors standing all around them.

“This is not piracy and must not be reported as such,” Mr Chandler said. “It is kidnapping and extortion and even torture.”

“We are just animals to them,” explained his wife Rachel, a 56 year old economist. “We have been kept caged up like animals. They don’t care about our feelings and our family and our lives and what they’ve taken. They don’t care whose lives they ruin. They just want the money.

“They don’t understand that we are just ordinary people. They think we come from a rich country and that if they point a gun at us and threaten us that we will find a way of raising money.”

After being held for months against their will in one of the most lawless countries on earth, the couple seem remarkably resilient and in reasonable health.

Paul Chandler revealed that 97 of their more than 200 days in captivity had been spent apart, something they have found particularly difficult after 30 years of marriage: “We don’t have children so we’re very close to each other. We’ve never been apart for more than a few days. We’ve been married almost 30 years, so to be separated is real torture.”

“They never tell us what’s happening next,” added Rachel. “Especially when we were isolated, when we were on our own, simply not knowing what was happening and whether we would be together again – when, where each other was, was real torture, mental torture.”

Rachel was last filmed in January, when she had clearly lost weight and was in distress. Since then, news reports have suggested she was raped or shot, but this appears to have been a mix of pirate propaganda and media hype.

When they were filmed last week, the couple said they have enough medicine and food, with the pirates serving up local dishes including goat’s liver, a Somali delicacy. Although they constantly live in fear of being separated again.

Last October, the Chandlers were kidnapped by pirates in the Indian Ocean just off the Seychelles, hundreds of miles from Somalia. Freelance Somali journalist, Jamal Osman, met the couple at a secret location somewhere between the towns of Adado and Haradhere and miles from any human settlement.

“The second time we were separated we refused to be separated initially, and that was a bit silly,” said Paul. “We were physically separated, we were whipped and Rachel was hit with a rifle butt and has a broken tooth.

“It’s a long time ago, the wounds have healed. And that was the only occasion, only one occasion, when we had any real aggression.”

‘A laughing stock’
Rachel says that it is still the capture and looting of their yacht, the Lynn Rival, which they had sold their house to buy, which upsets her most. “I can’t think about it without bringing tears to my eyes….having to abandon her was the very worst experience, and when I realised that nothing would ever be the same again.”

What pains the Chandlers even more is that a Royal Navy refuelling ship, the Wave Knight, was just a hundred metres or so away when the pirates were aboard the yacht. Though instead of storming the boat and risking casualties, the British sailors kept away.

“The fact that we’re alive and talking to you suggests that they were right to do what they did,” Paul acknowledged.

“But it really makes them – the whole, that fleet of warships – a laughing stock and that is what they are, a laughing stock for these people. They can’t do anything.”

Jamal Osman, who interviewed the Chandlers, describes his experience:
While I knew at the back of my mind that these gunmen could kill me, I had to approach them, not as criminals, but as people with important and interesting information.

Since the gangs are not politically motivated, their interest in the Chandlers is the hope that at some point they will get millions in ransom money. This particular gangs seemed experience in kidnapping and one of them told me that it was his third such case.

Credit to the Chandlers, I was very impressed with them and the way they are coping with this horrific ordeal. In particular, Rachel seemed resilient. The gangs were even complaining about her determination not to be terrorized.

One of them said: “If you tell Rachel to do something, she will ask why. Sometimes she becomes aggressive toward our boys. She wants to control us.”

Read more from Jamal Osman

Though the pirates holding the Chandlers may not give up without a fight, the hostages find the courage to condemn their kidnappers outright on camera.

“They show no compassion as you and I would understand it”, Rachel said. “They are only interested in us as a vehicle for raising money, and their only interest is in keeping us alive in order to do so.”

“We are old enough to be the grandparents of most of the people in the gang,” said Paul. “But, you know, we can’t communicate with them, we can’t say to them ‘how would you like it if your grandparents were taken away to another country, separated, kept in solitary confinement?’”

The Chandlers’ daily challenge is filling time. Never knowing when or where they will be moved next, as the pirates evade any attempt to rescue them. The couple say they have a small supply of books and play cards endlessly, even brushing their teeth for up to ten minutes on end, just to survive the tedium of hostage life.

“The only thing that is difficult is the lack of privacy,” Rachel said. “But I am now so used to them that I just go and find a bush to wash and use the toilet. And if they see me, that’s their problem. I have to make do and, you know, one does.”

The broadcast interview ends with an appeal to the couple’s families to keep their spirits up back home. “We are being strong for them because they keep us going,” says Rachel.

“We know they are doing their best. It has been seven months and we know they must have been suffering alongside us, and we care about them very much.”

“There’s one thing that is important and that is freedom” concludes Paul. “We don’t have it. Nothing else matters really. We don’t miss any thing. We miss everything. We miss the ability to walk out of the door and determine our own lives, wrongfully taken from us.”

Foreign Office statement:
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “Paul and Rachel Chandler are innocent tourists. They were sailing their yacht when taken hostage by a criminal gang seven months ago. The UK government’s policy of not making or facilitating substantive concessions to hostage-takers, including the payment of ransoms, is long-standing and clear. This has been the policy of successive governments and has not changed.

“Our thoughts are with their families on the release of this video, and our consular officials are in close touch with them. We again urge those holding Paul and Rachel to release them safely, immediately and unconditionally.”

An article was just posted by the Mirror that stated Pirate leader Maslah Yare put Paul Chandler, 60, and wife Rachel, 56, into a car and hid them in a forest. 

Al-Shabab, a group linked to al-Qaeda, had been closing in on the pirates’ lair. Yare, who wants a £1.3million ransom, said they would be abandoned if Al-Shabab got too close because “our lives are more important”.

It has been rumored that Al-Shabab may have similar financial interests in participating in the kidnapping of the British sailing couple,  Paul and Rachel Chandler.

Rachel Chandler and her husband are as far from salvation as eve

Rachel Chandler shot. Please call urgently … That was the dramatic and brutally short text-message sent to us by our Somali contact last weekend.

And like every such missive about the British couple held by pirates in the Horn of Africa, it demanded to be checked.

The Daily Mail has the mobile-phone number for the gang’s spokesman, a lugubrious sounding character who calls himself Ali Gedow, and we immediately tried to call it.

But separating fact from fiction in this intractable saga is never easy. For one thing, ‘Ali’ rarely deigns to answer unsolicited calls, and when he does his heavily accented English is rendered incomprehensible by whisky and khat, the pirates’ drug of choice.

For another, one never knows whether to believe his rambling pronouncements, for the pirates have become as adept as Alastair Campbell at manipulating the media, to increase the pressure on those negotiating to free their hapless captives.

And so it was now. After reportedly confirming to a Somali radio station that 56-year-old Mrs Chandler had indeed received gunshot wounds in some unspecified incident, by the time we got through to him last Monday, pirate Ali had changed his story.

Kidnapped: Paul and Rachel Chandler were sailing around the world when their boat was hijacked by Somalian pirates

‘No, it is a mistake  -  another girl was shot, not Rachel Chandler,’ he told the Mail during our longest and most lucid interview since the Kent economist and her husband, Paul, were kidnapped while yachting in the Indian Ocean.

‘Two of our pirates had an argument, and one fired his gun, hitting a Somali girl who was with Rachel in the leg. Rachel was close by at the time but she was not injured. She is quite OK.’

In a bizarre aside, he added that the pirates have given Mrs Chandler a gun with which to ‘protect herself’ from renegade guards.

Why would they risk this when she could use the weapon to shoot her way to freedom? ‘She will never do this,’ he replied with a hollow laugh. ‘There are 100 of us and she is alone in the desert. She knows she would be killed.’

For good measure, Ali added that Mrs Chandler  -  who has appeared dangerously thin and close to breaking point on video appeals sanctioned by the pirates  -  is now much improved in health and spirits.

Her 60-year-old husband, who seems to be bearing up better than his wife, was also faring well, he claimed.

‘We have given them books and a radio. They stay in a comfortable tent and they eat pirate food with us; sometimes we even drive them around to show them the scenery,’ he said, making it sound as though they were on an extended holiday.

‘If they get sick we give them herbal medicines made from leaves. They are not together any longer. We’re keeping them a few miles apart. But they are relaxing with our people.’

Hostage: Rachel Chandler and her Somali captors. The British couple have previously made a direct plea on video warning UK authorities they fear the 'kidnappers are losing patience' and may kill them

However, tomorrow will mark the 150th day since these middle-class adventurers from Tunbridge Wells were taken hostage during what should have been an idyllic cruise.

And despite the rash assertion of a senior Somali politician earlier this month that the Chandlers would be released within ten days (a deadline which passed a week ago) the Mail has learned that, in reality, efforts to free them are hopelessly deadlocked.

Indeed, according to well-placed sources, little progress has been made since October 23, when, after sending out a last anguished message apparently meant for Mr Chandler’s sister  -  ‘PLEASE RING SARAH!’  -  they were abducted at gunpoint.

Their white 38ft yacht, Lynn Rival, which they bought in the mid-Nineties and sailed in exotic locations for six months of the year, recording their progress on a widely read blog, has long since been returned to Britain.

Stripped and trashed by the pirates, it was recovered by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel Wave Knight, whose commander has been criticised for failing to act as the pirates sailed off with their quarry.

It is being preserved as a ‘crime scene’ for use in a future trial, if ever the kidnap gang, who could be prosecuted in a British court, is brought to justice.

But how to repatriate the yacht’s owners is an all together thornier issue.

If the Chandlers had been crewing for some big shipping company, they would almost certainly have been released months ago.

Mr and Mrs Chandler collect a trophy during a stop-off at the Indian island of Goa

Since losses accrued through acts of piracy are invariably covered by insurance, and can amount to £50,000 for every day a vessel is impounded, it makes business sense to pay the ransom as soon as possible.

Unpalatable and morally questionable as this may sound, it remains the reality, even though average demands have escalated alarmingly in recent months.

In January, the owners of one Greek-flagged oiltanker reportedly paid a record £4.6million to release the ship, laden with two million barrels of oil, plus 28 crew members.
As usual, the cash was simply withdrawn from a bank, secured in a waterproof container and dropped by parachute on to the deck of the pirates’ ship at a pre-arranged time. Once counted, the tanker was permitted to sail on its way.

On average, it takes 70 days for this process to be completed, according to one London-based maritime lawyer who acts in these matters; less than half as long as the Chandlers have been held.

But their plight is very different. An ordinary, semi-retired couple, they and their relatives are by no means wealthy, and have no way of paying the exorbitant sum demanded.

During the five months they have been held, this has varied seemingly at whim.

Sailing enthusiast: Paul Chandler pictured on board the Lynn Rival

This week, spokesman Ali was talking in terms of £1.3 million to £2.6 million, although he added that the Chandlers could also be freed in exchange for the release of seven ‘ brother’ pirates awaiting trial in Kenya.

Arrested by an EU naval patrol boat as they attacked a French trawler some 50 miles from the Lynn Rival on the day the Chandlers were captured, these seven pirates may have been part of the same gang, although there is no confirmed link.

At all events, with more than 100 pirates languishing in their jails, there is no chance of the Kenyan authorities complying with this demand. Nor will the British government negotiate with the pirates, as they have repeatedly made plain.

Therefore, the unenviable task of trying to make the pirates see reason has fallen to Mrs Chandler’s brother, Stephen Collett, a retired farmer from East Anglia.

Understandably, he declines to utter a word about this parlous task.

However, according to a source close to the family, the pirates phone him frequently and at all hours. So he is constantly on red alert for the latest call from Somalia, and under enormous stress.

‘It seems we have reached an impasse,’ says the source. ‘The pirates don’t seem to understand that the Chandlers are not from a rich family. Even if they can raise some modest amount of money there’s still a huge gap in the middle.

‘The family are very frightened, naturally. Their only consolation is that, so far, the pirates have never harmed one of their hostages. Sadly, though, it seems Paul and Rachel might be in for a very long stay.’

Listening to Ali this week, his grim prognosis seemed well justified, for the pirates’ spokesman seemed lost in the realms of fantasy.

When the Mail explained the Chandlers’ financial position and ventured that his gang  -  who regard themselves as a latter-day version of Robin Hood and his merry men  -  might enhance their image by releasing the couple as an act of mercy, he laughed incredulously.

‘We don’t need a good name,’ he said. ‘Money is better than a good name. We don’t care if Paul and Rachel are nice people. This is just about money.

‘We don’t believe they [presumably he meant the Chandlers' relatives] can’t find the money. They are from Britain. Everyone there has £2million or £3million.

‘We need that much just to cover our expenses. We have to keep 150 men and we have to buy weapons, boats, engines. We have to buy big houses and 4×4s.’

He laughed again and added: ‘And each one of us has to keep four wives.’

The notion that the pirates need a seven-figure sum to recoup their outlay is preposterous. Nor is the ransom shared out among the gang and impoverished Somali villagers, as the pirates would like us to believe.

In truth, as we have discovered during a lengthy investigation into the burgeoning piracy industry, most of the estimated £80 million so far paid in ransom money has been stashed away by a few hugely wealthy pirate barons.

Meanwhile, their henchmen, who sail up to 1,500 miles from the Somali coast in tiny skiffs to seek out vessels sailing outside EU patrolled shipping lanes, are paid a few hundred dollars.

For this pittance, they are forced to remain at sea for up to a month at a time and risk being shot, drowned, arrested, or starving to death when their fuel and food supplies run out miles from shore.

Yet they dare not return without capturing a ship, for their ruthless bosses do not take kindly to seeing their resources wasted on a fruitless mission.

It is a measure of the pirates’ increasing desperation that, in a farcical episode three days ago, one raiding party even attempted to storm a Dutch warship in the EU’s anti-piracy fleet.

Realising their mistake too late, the ten pirates were caught as they tried to flee.

Yet incredibly, the EU patrol ship let them go, even though two empty AK-47 shell- casings were found in their skiff and a rocketpropelled grenade-launcher, which had clearly been thrown overboard, was floating behind them.

It was decided that this would be insufficient evidence to bring a successful prosecution  -  a view which illustrates why it is proving so difficult to scupper the pirates once and for all.

It will doubtless be just as tricky to convict the ‘brother’ pirates whose release is being demanded by Ali, and who may have been running with the gang who kidnapped the Chandlers last October.

Now languishing in Mombasa’s forbidding Shimo la Tewa maximum-security prison, and facing 20 years in prison  -  if ever the wheels of Kenyan justice begin to turn  -  they are a ragged bunch, all young and poor, and unable to speak anything but Somali.

Interviewed by the Mail this week, their lawyer, Dickson Oruku Nyawinda, betrayed the ambiguity of their position.

In one breath, he insisted they had been fishing when they were caught (despite the fact they were miles out at sea and the prosecution claim they had no nets). In the next, he trotted out the pirates’ well-rehearsed line in self-justification.

This is broadly that, for years, ‘their’ coastal waters have been plundered by foreign fishing vessels and used as a dumping ground for industrial waste  -  and it’s payback time.

Exactly how this entitles them and their brethren to maraud in an area of ocean bigger than continental Europe, and frogmarch a pair of middle-aged pleasurecruisers away to months of terror, the lawyer did not explain.

Yet when he portrayed his clients as mere ‘foot soldiers’ alongside the ‘real pirates’ who recline beyond reach in their luxurious guarded compounds, there was no denying he had a point.

In the pirates’ stronghold, Haradheere, once an impoverished farming village, the air is that of a gold-rush town.

The potholed streets are jammed with huge, chromed four-wheel-drives, the shops are filled with imported luxury goods, and prostitutes from all parts of East Africa hustle for trade in the thronging bars.

A few months ago, the pirates even set up their own stock exchange there.

Anyone can buy shares in one of the 72 ‘maritime companies’ that profit from piracy  -  either by paying cash or donating useful equipment, such as weaponry or a rope-ladder. In return for their investment, they are paid a cut of the ransom money.

Meanwhile, in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, middlemen launder the pirate barons’ ill-gotten fortunes by snapping up desirable mansions and investing in legitimate businesses, such as textiles.

One shady broker calling himself ‘Willy’, who was accompanied by an armed bodyguard when he met us this week, said he had arranged so many property deals for the pirates that they had sparked a boom in the market.

Then there is the little-mentioned link between the pirates and al-Shabab, the fanatical Islamic militia who control much of southern Somalia and are fighting to take over the entire country.

Glancing around furtively as he spoke to us in the back of a parked car in Nairobi, a smartly dressed pirate named Mohamed admitted belonging to the hardline group, which styles itself on the Taliban and has enforced Sharia law in swathes of Somalia.

The spoils of piracy were a vital source of al-Shabab’s funding, he said, describing how he had taken part in five or six lucrative ship hijackings that helped to buy weapons for the bloody insurgency that is tearing Somalia apart.

This, then, is the tortuous and unfathomable netherworld into which the Chandlers drifted 150 days ago on the yacht that had brought them so much joy.

In the coming days and weeks, we can be sure there will be more melodramatic newsflashes from the pirates’ spokesman, Ali.

But whatever the truth behind the Somali spin-doctor’s cynical pronouncements, one thing is certain: it will take every ounce of Stephen Collett’s persuasive skills to bring his loved ones home.

Source:Mail Online

I have yet to find any evidence that supports the validity of this announcement, so I’m not going to re-post the original story.  Also, as barbaric as this tragedy is, I haven’t found any evidence that the pirates harm their captives without provocation.    

Regardless, the fact remains that both Rachel and Paul Chandler are still being held captive after almost 5 months and we would like to see them rejoin their families!  Hopefully we will see some positive news soon!