History Galician sailor detained in Yemen for 11 months accused of illegal fishing released
The Galician sailor
Pablo Costas
, who was held in Yemen since September 2020 on a charge of alleged illegal fishing, has accused the Spanish Government of, in his opinion, finding "complicity" with those who promoted what he considers a "kidnapping" , that is, with the Australian Government.
This was stated in a press conference at the headquarters of the union platform EMT Madrid. This sailor from Bueu (Pontevedra), skipper of the ship 'Cobija', was arrested
in September last year
, when he was in the port of Al Mukallah, in Yemen, along with the rest of his crew (more than thirty people from different nationalities), at the urging of the Australian authorities, under an accusation of alleged illegal fishing.
Last Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
confirmed his release.
Costas, who has already arrived in Spain, this afternoon held a press conference in Madrid in which he lamented the "injustice" and "abuse" that has been committed against him and his colleagues while complaining about the action of the Spanish Government for, in its opinion, having "commitments".
"I had to be in a country where
the law and the State have disappeared
. Then the consulates intervene, the Government of Spain and I have to go to them, and what do I find? I find a complicity towards the people who promoted this kidnapping. Why? I don't know. Commitments. Citizens seem to count less than all that, "he said.
Along the same lines, he has admitted that he sees many "contradictions" on the part of the Government and that he is "tired" of suffering "injustice after injustice": "Why does the Spanish Government recognize that State of Yemen to justify its lack of action? Everything is full of contradictions, "he explained.
He has also accused the Australian Government of being the "promoter" of the kidnapping.
"Australia with its
illegal pressure,
night calls to high ministers, the chief executive himself pressuring the poor members of the Government of Yemen and telling them that we had to be punished in one way or another," he remarked.
Despite the situation lived for so many months on board the ship
"without food, going through calamities, unprotected"
and suffering "great hardships", Costas has said that psychologically he is fine but that this experience has "changed" him.
"With my health they almost finished, but
with my mind not
. Yes, I am a different person. I had a lot of time to reflect. They detained me for a year and I have not been in my house for almost two years for work reasons, but it is the same. Freedom is
not stolen by any fascists
. That is clear to me, "he stressed.
During his press conference, Costas was accompanied by Manuel Camaño, a member of the CUTGALIZA unitary union of workers, who has also denounced that this "kidnapping", as they have described it, has been "organized by the Australian lobby" and that they have had "collaborators in the Spanish State through diplomatic and consular instruments."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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