Somali pirate sentenced to over 33 years in prison for hijacking three ships

[News_Editor]

Somali pirate sentenced to over 33 years in prison for hijacking three ships

2011-02-17 01:20:22 GMT+7 (ICT)

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- A Somali pirate on Wednesday was sentenced to over 33 years in prison for hijacking three ships and taking hostages, prosecutors said.

Abduwali Abukhadir Muse pleaded guilty to two felony counts of hijacking maritime vessels, two felony counts of kidnapping, and two felony counts of hostage taking on May 18, 2010.

The Somali pirate was sentenced to 405 months in federal prison. In addition to the prison term, Muse was also ordered to pay $550,000 in restitution as well as five years of supervised release.

The Somali national was accused of participating in the April 8, 2009, hijacking of the Maersk Alabama container ship in the Indian Ocean and the subsequent taking of the captain of the ship as a hostage.

He was also involved in the hijacking of two other vessels. Those hijackings also involved the taking of hostages. In March 2009, Muse and other pirates boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean.

The Somali pirates were armed with firearms and threatened the captain and held the captain and the crew hostage. Muse pointed a gun at one of the hostages and threatened to kill him. He also showed one hostage what appeared to be an improvised explosive device (IED).

Muse placed the IED near the hostage, and indicated that if the authorities came, the IED would explode. Muse and his co-conspirators left the ship on a small boat. Shortly after, they returned and made the ship to rendezvous with another one.

While they approached the other ship, the pirates ordered the captain of the abducted vessel to pull the ship up to other one. Subsequently, the pirates held hostage both vessels' captain and crew.

In April 2009, Muse and three other pirates left the abducted vessels and boarded the Maersk Alabama after shooting at the ship from their own skiff. Each of the four pirates who boarded the Maersk Alabama was armed with a gun.

Muse was the leader of the pirates who boarded the ship and thus demanded the ship be stopped. Several hours later, the Somali nationals took a life boat from the ship, on which they held hostage the captain from April 8 to 12.

During this period, in radio communications between the pirates and the U.S. Navy, the pirates threatened to kill the captain if they were not provided with safe passage away from the scene.

On April 12, the demand was granted and Muse was allowed to board the USS Bainbridge, a U.S. Navy missile destroyer that had arrived on the scene to continue negotiations but he was taken into custody.

In November 2009, five Somali nationals were convicted in a federal court in Virginia on piracy and other criminal charges, the first U.S. piracy case in 200 years. The pirates were accused of launched an attack in the Indian Ocean against USS Nicholas, U.S. Navy ship based in Norfolk, Virginia.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-02-17

[LaoPo]

Athough the pirates should indeed be punished I don't think it will help very much and the hijacking will continue, full speed.

It's the men behind these actions who should be taken by special forces and put in jail for life; these are very rich Somali guys, organising the whole thing.

But, I know...laws and such prevent this.

LaoPo

[brahmburgers]

It's a good small step - though his life will be better than his brethren in some ways. Though not free to roam around the dusty streets of his village, he'll have free health care, 100 channel TV, 3 big Arab meals a day - for the next 33 years. It cost tens of thousands of dollars/year to keep 1 person in US federal prison, plus the cost of apprehending him. Altogether, Uncle Sam is spending over a million dollars to keep this one ding dong (out of thousands) out of trouble.

Probably better to send the convicted <deleted> to a prison closer to his home, and make some deal with that government (Egypt or Kuwait or....?) to keep him away from society. In some places, they put prisoners in dirt pits in the ground with metal bars over it, and throw a few scraps of meal in once per day. In China, they just shoot the guy, and then send a bill to his parents for the bullet.

[billd766]

Back in the old days the penalty for piracy was hanging from the yardarm.

Why not revive the practice?

[LaoPo]

It's a good small step - though his life will be better than his brethren in some ways. Though not free to roam around the dusty streets of his village, he'll have free health care, 100 channel TV, 3 big Arab meals a day - for the next 33 years. It cost tens of thousands of dollars/year to keep 1 person in US federal prison, plus the cost of apprehending him. Altogether, Uncle Sam is spending over a million dollars to keep this one ding dong (out of thousands) out of trouble.

Probably better to send the convicted <deleted> to a prison closer to his home, and make some deal with that government (Egypt or Kuwait or....?) to keep him away from society. In some places, they put prisoners in dirt pits in the ground with metal bars over it, and throw a few scraps of meal in once per day. In China, they just shoot the guy, and then send a bill to his parents for the bullet.

You're not exactly known on this forum as being very friendly towards China but it's amazing to hear they have empty prisons.....and I also didn't know that there's no more dead penalty in the US....

But I agree with your solution to send criminals like the Somali pirates back home; a nice camp in the sun and 30 years of hard labor in some desert would do better than to keep those guys in a prison, where ever, becoming a nice target for rapists.

LaoPo