SIR – Mark Starr (Letters, November 26) complains that the European Parliament has “proposed to downgrade the crime of piracy from an act of war to a simple criminal act”, and adds that this puts the lives of sailors at greater risk. As usual he has his facts exactly back to front.
It is in direct response to the recent pirate raids off the coast in Somalia that MEPs have proposed “to treat piracy and armed robbery as criminal acts to be pursued by arresting the perpetrators under existing international law and thus to ensure the absolute legal certainty of criminal proceedings following armed attacks at sea.”
I would thank Mark Starr for bringing the latest positive achievement of MEPs to the intention of readers, even though of course he intended to do the opposite.
PHILIP BUSHILLMATTHEWS MEP,
European Parliament,
Brussels
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