General Average, Piracy, Somalia and a court ruling

So what happens when ranson payments are demanded out of general average, and shippier/consignee take a stand against this?

Here's what a Kenyan importer did, when asked to pay up,or else - and then subsequently, the money was sought to be forcibly withdrawn from his bank account.

Briefly, Absons of Mombasa were going to see substantial funds transferred from the their banks to  the Singapore owners as well as their ransom negotiators till the authorities put a halt to it.

Read more about it here:-

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Bank%20caught%20in%20piracy%20cash%20row%20/-/1056/1055752/-/heroai/-/

These are some interesting parts:-

"The importer, through the firm of Kinyua Muyaa, is now under duress to agree to have the funds referred to as ‘general average’ released to Habib Bank in Singapore, after which they will be remitted to Marine Claims office of Asia, which negotiated with the pirates."

The ship was the PIL container vessel KOTA FAJAR, and the ransom was around 3.3 million USD plus lawyers and megotiators fees.