Nairobi/Mogadishu - Somali pirates have released a German- owned ship and its crew after a receiving a hefty ransom payment, an official said Wednesday. "The information we have is that the MV Lehmann Timber was released on Tuesday when a ransom of 750,000 dollars was paid," Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
A spokesman for the Karl Lehmann Shipping Company of the German city of Luebeck said that all 15 crew members of the cargo ship were in good health.
The ship was seized at the end of May along with a Turkish vessel. The Turkish ship was released at the end of June.
The MV Lehmann Timber had been held near the coastal village of Eyl while negotiations continued.
Mwangura said that the pirates initially wanted well over 1 million dollars.
Somalia's Radio Garowe quoted the mayor of Eyl as saying that the ransom exchange was made on the high seas and that the pirates and owners had "direct communication."
Authorities in Somali have criticized the practice of paying ransoms, saying that it only encourages more attacks.
Piracy is rife off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation. Cargo ships and luxury yachts have been targeted by heavily-armed pirates, who then hold the crew ransom.
Pirates are currently demanding 2 million dollars for the release of a German couple seized on June 23 as they sailed through the Gulf of Aden on a trip from Egypt to Thailand.
The highest-profile case in recent months involved the capture of a luxury French yacht in April. French troops rescued the hostages and captured six of the pirates, although another six are believed to have escaped.
The UN Security Council recently approved incursions into Somali waters to curb piracy, which the weak transitional government, currently engaged in countering a bloody insurgency, is powerless to prevent.
Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
