Two more Somalis sentenced in piracy case
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two more Somalis were sentenced by a US judge on Tuesday to life in prison on piracy charges in connection with a deadly attack on a yacht in February which killed four Americans.
Mohamud Salad Ali, 35, and Ahmed Sala Ali Burale, 22, were the fifth and sixth defendants to be sentenced in the case in Norfolk, Virginia, before Federal Judge Mark Davis, court documents showed.
Ali pleaded guilty on May 20 to the piracy charge and to a hostage taking resulting in death. He received concurrent life sentences on both charges.
Burale pleaded guilty on May 25 to piracy under the law of nations and received a life sentence.
According to court documents, Ali acknowledged that he served as a leader of the piracy operation, but stated in his plea agreement that he played no role in the murder of the four US citizens.
Burale admitted that he joined the pirates for the sole purpose of making money. He also said that when the shooting started, he tried try to stop it by grabbing a shooter's rifle and pushing the barrel upward.
The sentences were the latest in the attack on the Quest yacht. Jean and Scott Adam, Christian missionaries from California, were sailing their vessel around the world and planned to visit sites from India to Crete when they were hijacked by 19 men off the coast of Oman.
According to the Navy, pirates launched a rocket-propelled grenade and, as US forces headed to the hijacked yacht, shot Mr. and Mrs. Adams and their companions, Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle.
They became the first Americans to die in the raft of hijackings over recent years off the Somali coast. Most incidents have been resolved through the payment of ransom, albeit sometimes after protracted negotiations.
"The boarding of the Quest by 19 armed and desperate men, unwilling to negotiate and intent on a ransom for the Quest and its crew, set the stage for the violence and tragic murders that followed," said US Attorney Neil MacBride.
"Mohamud Salad Ali led the pirate attack, and his refusal to release the four Americans -- even with the opportunity to proceed to Somalia with the Quest -- reveals the callous regard that Somali pirates have for their hostages and the threat they pose to any US vessel on the high seas."
On Monday, Muhidin Salad Omar, 30, and Mahdi Jama Mohamed, estimated to be 23 or 24, became the third and fourth Somali pirates to be sentenced to life in prison.
US officials pledged the case would serve as a lesson for Somalia's pirates, who have created a virtual industry based on hijackings and ransom payments in the strategic waters next to their lawless homeland.
The first life sentences in the case were handed down on August 22 to Ali Abdi Mohamed, 30, and Burhan Abdirahman Yusuf, 31.
Five more of the pirates have pleaded guilty to charges of piracy and are awaiting mandatory life sentences.
Three others, aged between 20 and 29 years old, face the death penalty and are being prosecuted separately on allegations that include murder.