#the court literally lured him to the states by organizing a fake academic conference and inviting him to it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

noknowshame · 1 year

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this is your reminder that -to this day- maritime law upholds that pirates are hostis humani generis ("enemies of all mankind") and people can and very much have been legally convicted under those terms in this century

#what this means really is that in international waters anyone is allowed to seize pirates #and if you seize them your government gets to convict them based on their own legal code - however lenient or strict that is #this applies indefinitely after you've committed the act of piracy. so you're basically a permanent fugitive from everywhere #which is how in 2008 a somali guy who attacked a russian ship flying a bahamian flag got convincted in the US #the court literally lured him to the states by organizing a fake academic conference and inviting him to it #(he was the Minister of Education for Somaliland- an unrecognized independent democratic state - love those!)#intriguing as shit #he got acquitted eventually tho so he's fine

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