‘Pirates’ in court over US deaths

Thirteen Somalis and a Yemeni have pleaded not guilty to charges over the hijacking of a yacht that ended with the deaths of four US sailors.

The men are charged in US federal court with piracy, kidnapping and weapons charges.

The couple who owned the boat and two guests were shot to death after pirates took them hostage off Oman last month.

The suspected pirates were captured by US naval forces sent to the scene of the hijacking.

‘I know nothing’

If convicted by the court in Norfolk, in the US state of Virginia, the men face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

“There’s nothing I know about these charges,” defendant Mohamud Salad Ali said through an interpreter on Tuesday. “I do not admit that I was a pirate.”

Last month, Scott and Jean Adam, owners of the S/V Quest, and their passengers Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay, were killed after pirates hijacked the vessel.

They were the first US citizens killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years.

US naval forces were tracking their captured yacht and engaged in negotiations with one pirate aboard a US Navy vessel when the pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade, according to the military.

‘Killed without provocation’

Then gunfire was heard on board the yacht. Special forces boarded the yacht and found the Americans had been shot, the military says.

At least three of the accused pirates killed the four without provocation, and the defendants on the Quest had a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, three rounds and several small arms, prosecutors said.

According to the Adams’ website, the middle-aged couple set sail in 2002 on the 58-foot vessel, and in 2004 they embarked on a planned eight- to 10-year voyage around the world.

Friends described the couple as adventure-seekers who were also driven by their Christian faith, at times distributing Bibles at ports of call.

A tentative trial date has been set for 17 May.

In the past year, at least six accused Somali pirates have been convicted in US courts.

On Monday, a judge in Norfolk handed down life sentences to five Somali men who had been found guilty of piracy in the attempted hijacking of a US naval vessel last year.