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Did Deadly Honey-Trap Kill a Whistle-Blowing Sailor?

By ecop-marine

As we already reported after the deadly fall of Kim Yong-hyun, 68, he was not alone at the time of his death, it has now been proven. The chief engineer of illegal fishing vessel KEUMMI 305 (aka FV GOLDEN WAVE, aka FV GEUMMI 305) died due to a fall from from a fourth floor balcony of his hotel room in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa and in the presence of a woman. The captain and owner of the Golden Wave also was staying at that hotel.

It was observed that a Kenyan woman, now detained and under Police investigation, was with him at the time.

A security guard also stated that Kim was heard having a dispute with that woman before he fell to his untimely death, while others say that not only that woman was present.

The woman, however, was arraigned at a Mombasa Magistrate's court today, Friday, and sent to remand prison until further investigations conclude.

According to Kenyan police, statistics cases of people especially from Asian countries meeting their untimely death by "falling off balconies" or "jumping out of hotel room windows" or "falling from a hotel roof garden" are in Kenya not uncommon, but often are also not further investigated.

In the case of Kim Yong-hyun, suicide has already been ruled out, because the seaman had serious other plans, just had overcome a four month ordeal in the hands of Somali pirates with plenty of suicide possibilities. He also didn't leave a note or a last will.

Likewise an accident is not very plausible, since a seamen, even under the influence of alcohol, who for so many years managed to never slip off the deck of a swaggering ship, does not just fall like that off a secured and strong balcony.
Insiders reveal that it seems to be a common method applied by far eastern Mafia groups operating in the country to get rid of people. The cases usually are just booked by the police under "stumbled due to too much alcohol" or "slipped in quarrel with prostitute" and forgotten.

The seaman had arrived Tuesday on board of the illegal fishing vessel released after four month from Somalia. On Thursday, he had an evening a dinner with the captain and owner of the ship, whose company had been declared bankrupt in South Korea. During the dinner the two reportedly disagreed on numerous points. Among other issues the captain, as he is buried in debt, had been unable to pay the chief engineer what was agreed between the two. Only a few hours later Kim Yong-hyun' life came crushing to an end.

"I cannot believe that my father, whom I spoke to over the phone just a few days ago, is dead," Kim Jin-gon, 41, the son of the engineer, told Yonhap News Agency. "I believe the government is hiding something," he added. "Just a few days ago, my father called me and said he was healthy and was coming back home. I don't know what is what, as this happened just a few days after," the son said.

Kim's son and a brother-in-law will leave for Kenya to repatriate the body of the deceased, who is currently at the mortuary of Pandya Memorial Hospital in Kenya. They will see how the investigation is going, an official from South-Korea's Foreign Ministry told Yonap news agency.

The South-Korean government had announced already earlier that it would investigate all the dealings and the case of this fishing vessel, which never should have left the South Korean waters in the first place.

Numerous other crew members, especially from the group of 39 Kenyan fishermen on that vessel who had already started to speak out and told about the criminal business the vessel-owning captain, the co-owner agent and the key-crew were dragging them before and after it was captured by Somalis in Somali waters. Now, they fear for their lives.

Though Kenya has a witness protection legislation in place, many doubt that it has practical value.

The lucrative illegal fishing as well as the maritime drug-smuggling business has seen in Kenya for many decades the criminal cartels bribing or killing their ways through layers of officials ranging from policemen and other government employees, via ministers and up to the state-house level. This is the high time to fully investigate such cases.

Since the Somali piracy surged in 2008 also numerous vessels of companies, who were regularly involved in illegal, unlicensed and uncontrolled (IUU) fishing, have been used to deliver ransoms to get ships again out of Somalia. The creepers of the international security companies, infamous for their dealings in Iraq and Afghanistan, have also muscled their armed way in.

The harbour of Mombasa is therefore not an environment where too many people like to talk, if no proper investigation is launched and no serious safety measures are put in place.
Reasons enough for the Kenyan government to finally show their capabilities in cracking these cases wide open.

SOURCE: ECOTERRA Intl.