Legal News

Ahoy, Mateys! Meet Kenya?s No.1 Pirate Lawyer

By Amir Efrati

If you’ve been reading the news lately, you probably heard that the U.S. took custody of and charged a Somali teenager with committing piracy after he allegedly held hostage an American ship captain off the East African coast.

But so far one country has been doing most of the legal assaults for us: Kenya.

There, lawyer Francis Kadima (pictured, above, with recent alleged pirate defendants in March), has been busy defending many of the three-dozen piracy suspects who were handed over to Kenyan authorities by the US Navy and others as the crackdown on pirates ramped up this year. Here’s the NYT story on Kenya and Kadima.

Why has a nation known for its safaris and distance runners become a Mecca of pirate prosecution? Putting sea-farers on trial isn’t a cake-walk. Serving papers is a chore, as many witnesses are out at sea all year and have no mailing addresses. European and Asian countries that have tried flexing their legal muscles have needed numerous translators for the court proceedings. Also, the maximum punishment for piracy in Kenya is life in prison.

The 50-year-old Kadima, who took on his first piracy case in March, said he had yet to get paid, but the publicity is a good as money. He told NYT his clients all use the same excuse for how they got caught, guns in hand, in the ocean: "They said they were just fishermen," he said. "Fishermen who needed to protect themselves."

The newspaper asked whether he really believes his clients. "A lawyer doesn't need to believe," he said. "He goes by what he is told."

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 24, 2009 (boomark / email).