Primorsky court of Odessa entertained actions of Ukrainian seamen, the crew members of “Lemann Timber”, about payment of all cash means that are due to the employment contract and also compensation of moral damage during staying in pirates’ captivity in the zone of hostilities. The first sitting is assigned for November 10th 2008.

As it was noted in the press-service of Ombudsman of Supreme Rada of Ukraine Nina Karpacheva, “the Ombudsman is continuing execution of the seamen protection of the crew of the vessel “Lemann Timber” released from the pirates’ captivity in July of this year. For protection of the seamen the ombudsman got involved high-professional lawyers – the specialists in the sphere of international maritime law. The active position of the Ombudsman favored the fact that the ship owner did pay a part of the sum in a pre-trail order. Taking into account this payment the sum of action claims made around 80 thousand USD”.

“In spite of legality and foundation of seamen demands, the companies “UNITEAM MARINE”, “KW BEREEDERUNGS GMBH & Co. KG”, “Kehdingerland GmbH & Co. KG”, “Moormerland Ltd” haven’t carried out their obligations towards the seamen in full at present. Having been refused by the ship owner unfairly, the crew members of the vessel “Lemann Timber” resolved to obtain justice in the court”, it was added in the press-service.

The Ombudsman also received information that the court of Finnish city Hamin (150 km away from Helsinki) delivered judgment about the arrest of the vessel “Lemann Timber”.

As IA “Context-Prichernomorie” reported before, German vessel “Lemann Timber” was boarded by Somalian pirates on May 28th in the territorial waters of Yemen close by the island Sokotr. There were 4 Odessa citizens among the captured: senior mechanical engineer Vitaly Rudnichenko, the second mechanical engineer Stanislav Ilushkin, electrician Sergey Alimov, the fourth mechanical engineer Sergey Atakuziev, and also Russian master, Estonian navigator and 9 sailors from Burma.

After the boarding the transport was driven off to Aden bay, where the vessel cast anchor nearby the settlement Yeul. The mob demanded three mln USD from the ship owner for releasing of the hostages. As a result of long negotiations the sum of the ransom reduced to 750 thousand USD.

By the words of the hostages’ relatives irritated by greediness of ship owners the pirates laid down conditions that if they don’t receive the money within the specified date, the part of the seamen will be shot down and thrown into the ocean, and the other part will be sold into slavery. According to the words of the relatives, that were talking to the seamen on the cell phone, the heat in the premises where the guarded hostages were sleeping reached 50C above zero, potable water was only service water, rusty and rotten, the food was run out, and the only thing that saved the seamen was raw fish that the pirates threw to them.

On July 8th the crew members and the vessel “Lemann Timber” were released.