Source: AFP
FV MOMTAZ 1 and FV AHMAD-SAMARA, captured in April in the Gulf of Aden for illegal fishing, arrived at Ataka, a fishing port located in front of the mountains of Sinai, not far from Suez (eastern Cairo).
But families and friends of the 40 sailors had to wait first, while 6 Egyptian minors as well as 8 pirates were secretly off-loaded by the Egyptian secret service before the the rusted hulls of both vessels came in sight at the harbour - with the official crew of 34 seamen onboard.
On a huge banner, was written: "Welcome to the son of Egypt, the fishermen heroes" and this is how the owners of the ill-fated vessels had wanted to sell the story.
"The pirates treated us badly during the five months as they fed us with rotten rice and hot water," local Nile TV quoted one of the fishermen as saying.
Surely the suffering crew and their families had reason to be happy to be safely home. "This is the happiest day of my life," said an emotional father of one of the sailors, Ismaïl Abdessalam, while a young fisherman of 20, Sayyed Sobhi, said he is "happy to be back in country after months of misery and abuse."
Lies, lies and lies
But if the joy and relief is palpable, grey areas remain regarding the circumstances of the voyage, doings and the liberation of the Egyptians.
According to official media, a "secret" plan was developed by the Egyptian authorities in collaboration with the Somali government, which was then implemented by the fishermen.
Egypt's state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper said earlier this month that one of the country's main security agencies played a key role in the operation to free the fishermen.
Agents convinced the pirates that a ransom payment was about to be made when in fact the money was being used to pay Somali clansmen to use force to free the fishermen, the paper said.
The owner of one of the boats, Hassan Khalil, reportedly travelled to the breakaway Somali province of Puntland with the so-called ransom but actually used it to pay clansmen to turn on the pirates.
Khalil refused to say if he had paid a ransom. "It's none of your business. It is between God and us," he told AFP.
However, according to the sailors, no external assistance was forthcoming, if not the owner of Momtaz I, Hassan Khalil. But he remains himself evasive.Well, he might seek forgiveness for the plunder and murders he at least instigated.
Also one of the sailors of Momtaz I, Ibrahim Mohammed Naim, 30, denied any external intervention.
"We have succeeded in seizing their weapons. Some slept, and each of us has fought for his life. We were not afraid to die," he said in a hesitant voice, visibly exhausted. But "there was nothing on the part of Egypt," he says.
The sailors said that during their captivity and after the illegally caught tuna had gone bad and was thrown overboard - they had been often locked in the refrigeration compartments of the ships when naval vessels were nearby and treated badly.
Nobody believes what an owner of one of the ships had told reporters, when he claimed that he helped intelligence services to carry out what was code-named "Operation Egyptian Dignity".
"What is certain," adds Hamadein Sabbahi, MP from Borg el-Borollos (Nile Delta), from which many fishermen stem, "is that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has done nothing. What is likely is that the intelligence services have provided logistical support. But the fishermen could escape by themselves."
All sailors confirmed that they brought eight captured Somalis with them. According to a fisherman, they were taken by the Egyptian authorities to an unknown destination before the vessels arrive in port Ataka. Two Somalis were killed in the operation to escape while eight have been taken to Egypt for trial also other sources confirmed.
Justice
"Eight of the pirates were captured and have been returned to Egypt where they are expected to stand trial," the BBC reported from Cairo and "The Egyptian authorities said they would be treated "in accordance with international law", the AFP news agency revealed. Also the Chinese news agency Xhinua stated that they were told officially: "The eight Somali pirates caught by the Egyptian fishermen will be tried in Egypt according to the International Law."
But - though Egypt had boasted itself as a regional hub to co-ordinate other countries in the legal fight against piracy and following international law, there are persistent rumours that the Egyptian government could bow under the pressure of the two obviously criminal ship-owners as well as some officials from Puntland and give in to a demand to just let the Somalis go back to Northern Somalia. An extradition to Puntland, since this is a region hostile to the clan from which the 8 Somalis hail, is seen as an extradition to face unjust treatment, forbidden under international humanitarian conventions.
Imagine the crew of the illegal fishing vessel presently held in a Tanzania prison would kill two warders and escape with their vessel from Tanzania, would the world then also celebrate their "heroe"-return? What the Somali authority in Laskooray clearly failed to do is to put the crews and their ship-owners on a proper trial and so the case developed into a situation close to a hostage-taking, but this doe not mean that the Egyptians did right.
The best the Egyptian Government can do is to put the two ship-owners as well as the 8 held Somalis on internationally observed legal trials, where the whole truth can be examined and Egypt at least can demonstrate that it plays by the books and itself respects human rights.