Detained Somali pirates are escorted by police as they leave a police station in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The Somalis are a part of a group of seven who had surrendered to Malaysian navy. commandos after being foiled in an attempted hijacking of a Malaysian-owned ship

Five suspected Somali pirates who were flown to South Korea to face possible trial are being questioned about who shot and critically injured the captain of a hijacked ship, an official said yesterday.
The five were brought to the southern port of Busan Sunday and formally arrested on charges of robbery, ship hijacking, and attempted murder.
Seok Hae-Kyun, 58, the skipper of the chemical carrier Samho Jewelry, which had been captured by pirates in the Arabian Sea, was shot repeatedly as South Korean navy commandos stormed the vessel on January 21.
In a widely praised operation, they freed unharmed 20 other crew members—seven South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 from Myanmar—shot dead eight pirates and captured five.
In Busan the five, including a man identified as Arai Mahomed, have been questioned in the presence of state-appointed lawyers, a lengthy process that involves translations between Somali, English and Korean.
“Because of conflicting testimony by the pirates, the investigation focused on who shot Captain Seok,” a coastguard spokesman in Busan said.
He said Mahomed denied responsibility, although some of the crew pointed the finger at him.
“We have evidence supporting the fact that one of the five pirates shot Captain Seok,” chief investigator Kim Chung-Gyu said, according to Yonhap news agency.
Investigators are also looking into whether the pirates targeted the Samho Jewelry after learning that a South Korean supertanker owned by the same firm was freed after a large ransom was paid, Yonhap said.
The 300,000-tonne Samho Dream and its 24 crew were released last year after a reported $9mn payment.
The five could face life in prison if convicted of shooting the Samho Jewelry’s captain. If he were to die, they could theoretically be sentenced to death, although the country has carried out no executions since 1997.
Seok underwent two operations in an Oman hospital and was flown home Saturday for another procedure.
The case is drawing attention from other countries tackling piracy, as is a similar one in Malaysia, where seven alleged pirates captured in a raid to free a hijacked oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden arrived yesterday for possible prosecution.AFP