NY Times: The Outlaw Ocean Series – Murder at Sea, Captured on Video, But Killers Go Free

“Murder at Sea, Captured on Video, But Killers Go Free” is the second article in a four article NY Times series, The Outlaw Ocean, by Ian Urbina ( 点击查看本文中文版 ):

“The man bobbing in the sea [likely the Indian Ocean in 2012 or 2013] raises his arms in a seeming sign of surrender before he is shot in the head. … A slow-motion slaughter unfolds over the next 6 minutes and 58 seconds. … Despite dozens of witnesses on at least four ships, those killings remain a mystery. No one even reported the incident — … Law enforcement officials learned of the deaths only after a video of the killings was found on a cellphone left in a taxi in Fiji last year, then posted on the Internet. With no bodies, no identified victims and no exact location of where the shootings occurred, it is unclear which, if any, government will take responsibility for leading an investigation. Taiwanese fishing authorities, who based on the video connected a fishing boat from Taiwan to the scene but learned little from the captain, say they believe the dead men were part of a failed pirate attack. But maritime security experts, warning that piracy has become a convenient cover for sometimes fatal score-settling, said it is just as likely that the men were local fishermen in disputed waters, mutinied crew, castoff stowaways or thieves caught stealing fish or bait. ‘Summary execution, vigilantism, overzealous defense, call it what you will,’ said Klaus Luhta, a lawyer with the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, a seafarers’ union. ‘This boils down just the same to a case of murder at sea and a question of why it’s allowed to happen.’…”