SEOUL, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Prosecutors in South Korea charged five suspected Somali pirates with attempted murder in the hijacking of a South Korean ship last month.
The hijackers were captured after South Korean special forces stormed the Samho Jewelry Jan. 21. During the rescue, the ship's captain was shot and injured and eight pirates were killed.
Prosecutors said Friday they learned that some of the pirates were involved in the 2010 hijacking of a Samho Jewelry sister ship, the Samho Dream, which was released after a ransom was paid, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
Busan prosecutors filed six charges against the pirates, including maritime robbery and attempted murder.
"We have discovered that some of the pirates in the Samho Jewelry case were also involved in the kidnapping of the Samho Dream," Jeong Jeom-shik, the chief investigator, said during a briefing.
In November, two dozen crew members of the Samho Dream were released from seven months of captivity in Somalia after the ship's owner, Samho Shipping, reportedly paid more than $9 million in ransom. Several of the Samho Dream's crew members told investigators they recognized some of the pirates arrested in the Samho Jewelry hijacking, Jeong said.
Prosecutors said they also secured three bullets removed from the body of injured Capt. Seok Hae-kyun and determined that two were stray bullets fired by South Korea's Cheonghae Unit during the raid, the South Korean news agency said. The third bullet was fired from a rifle used by one of the pirates. A fourth bullet removed from the Seok's body was lost.
