A captain has told a Maltese court how migrants seized control of his bunker tanker after they were told it was going to take them back to Libya.
Three youths from Guinea and Ivory Coast aged 15, 16 and 19 are charged with hijacking the 846-dwt Elhiblu 1 (built 2015) last month.
It is alleged they ordered the master to head to Malta where the ship was re-taken by the army.
Captain Nader El Hiblu, 42, told a magistrate's court that the trio, who cannot be named, acted aggressively and circled the bridge, making sure the ship was heading to Malta at full throttle, the Times of Malta reported.
“No Libya, go Malta!” they said, according to him.
El Hiblu admitted that there had been no violence and that he was the only person steering the ship at all times.
“We did as we were told to avoid being hurt,” he told the court. “We felt outnumbered”.
The master said he had first made contact with Maltese authorities when El Hiblu 1 was close to Malta. He had not made any mention of being hijacked, he admitted.
“I wanted to keep things calm,” he said in court.
Crew locked themselves in
The vessel's chief engineer told the court: “We sensed something would happen and locked ourselves in.
"A group of 20 or 25 got hold of anything they could lay their hands on and began to bang on the glass."
The three are also charged with illegal arrest of the crew, changing the course of the vessel and causing the crew to fear violence would be used against them.
The Malta Independent reported that prosecutor Omar Zammit told the court that when the vessel was instructed to reverse its course and return the migrants to Libya, some five individuals had seized control of the vessel.
“We prefer death than having to return to Libya,” one of the hijackers is reported to have told the captain.
Zammit confirmed that no physical violence took place during the hijack, but said that the threat of it was clear.
One English-speaking migrant told the captain that they would hurt themselves or damage the tanker with tools they had seized, the court heard.
Around 20 to 25 people then started banging tools on the ship.
The case continues.
