{"id":309869,"date":"2011-03-14T22:35:21","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T22:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/14\/five-somalis-sentenced-to-life-in-piracy-case\/"},"modified":"2011-03-14T22:35:21","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T22:35:21","slug":"five-somalis-sentenced-to-life-in-piracy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/14\/five-somalis-sentenced-to-life-in-piracy-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Somalis sentenced to life in piracy case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"84.5606254806\">  <!-- start feedback link --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/feedback link -->       <!-- Tracking values --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!--startclickprintinclude-->   <!--endclickprintinclude--> <!--startclickprintexclude--> <!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<div readability=\"80.2599469496\"><!-- google_ad_section_start --><!-- CONTENT -->  <!-- REAP --><!--startclickprintexclude--><!--===========CAPTION==========--><\/p>\n<div readability=\"7\">\n<p>Five Somalis are accused of attacking the USS Nicholas in the Indian Ocean in 2010.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--===========\/CAPTION=========--> <!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- \/REAP --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><b>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/b><\/p>\n<ul><!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<li>Each of the defendants was sentenced to life plus 80 years <\/li>\n<li>They are longest sentences ever meted out to a pirate in a U.S. court<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s also the first time in 190 years that a U.S. court has convicted a defendant of piracy<\/li>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--endclickprintexclude--> <!--startclickprintinclude--> <\/p>\n<p><b>(CNN)<\/b> &#8212; Five Somali men were sentenced Monday to life plus 80 years in prison for engaging in piracy and related offenses in last year&#8217;s attack on a U.S. warship in the Indian Ocean, federal officials announced Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today marks the longest sentence ever given to a pirate in U.S. court, following the first time in over 190 years that an American jury has convicted a defendant of piracy,&#8221; Neil H. MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. &#8220;Today&#8217;s sentences should send a clear message to those who attempt to engage in piracy: Armed attacks on U.S.-flagged vessels carry severe consequences in U.S. courts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In November, a federal jury in Virginia convicted the Somali men &#8212; Mohammed Modin Hasan, Gabul Abdullahi Ali, Abdi Wali Dire, Abdi Mohammed Gurewardher and Abdi Mohammed Umar &#8212; of piracy, attack to plunder a vessel, act of violence against persons on a vessel, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon on federal officers and employees, conspiracy to use firearms during a crime of violence, and multiple firearm counts, including the use of a rocket propelled grenade.<\/p>\n<p>Citing evidence and trial testimony, the statement said the five men left Somalia in three vessels &#8212; two small ones and a larger one &#8212; looking for a merchant ship to pirate. On April 1, 2010, Hasan, Ali and Dire boarded one of the smaller boats and set out to pirate what they believed to be a merchant ship, while Gurewardher and Umar remained on the large ship, the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>Using assault weapons and a rocket-propelled grenade, the men opened fire on what they later discovered was no merchant ship but the USS Nicholas, a 450-foot U.S. warship whose home port is in Norfolk, Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>The Nicholas, in turn, sank the boat that carried out the attack and captured the pirate mother ship that launched it.<\/p>\n<p>MacBride estimated that Somali pirates currently hold 650 to 800 people hostage and that the annual cost of piracy could reach $12 billion.<\/p>\n<p>That would include the costs of ransoms, military operations to provide protection to shipping lanes and insurance policies that cover piracy, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The sentencing occurred in Norfolk before Judge Mark Davis, MacBride said. He called the sentences, which do not include the possibility of parole, the longest ever given out to pirates.<\/p>\n<p>The pirate statute, which dates to the early years of this country, carries a mandatory life sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Pirate attacks have become a frequent hazard for sailors off Somalia, which has had no effective central government since 1991. <\/p>\n<p><!--endclickprintinclude--><!-- google_ad_section_end --><br \/>\n<!-- \/cnn_strybtmcntnt --><\/div>\n<p><!-- \/cnn_strycntnt --><!-- \/cnn_strycntntrgt --><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>[Read more here|Read the original here|Read more from the original source|Continued here|Read more|More here|View original post here|More|See more here|See original here|Originally posted here|Here is the original post|See the original post|The rest is here|Read the rest here|See the rest here|Go here to read the rest|Go here to see the original|See the original post here|Read the original post|Original post|Read the original|Link|Excerpt from|View post|Visit link|Follow this link|Continue reading here|See the article here|Read this article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Five Somalis are accused of attacking the USS Nicholas in the Indian Ocean in 2010. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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