You don’t really know that much about federal prisons, do you? He’ll undoubtedly be housed in a maximum security prison which are generally overcrowded, dominated by race gangs, and with poor food.Īs a very young foreigner who doesn’t apparently speak English (or, at least, not well), he may be constantly harassed by said race gangs and be placed in the “Hole” for his own protection, “My sister and I woke up that morning hearing our mom cry,” she wrote. Judge Preska choked up several times as she read from other letters, including one from a crewmember’s stepdaughter, who wrote on behalf of herself and her younger sister they were 9 and 12 on the day of the Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said the sentence “makes it clear that piracy on the high seas is a crime against the international community that will not be tolerated.” Wright’s criticism, but said the company was pleased with the sentence. Wright also criticized Captain Phillips for not heeding advice to stay 600 miles off the Somali coast.Ī lawyer for the captain said he could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. The ship’s third officer, Colin Wright, addressed the court, saying, “What happened to us was terrible,” and asking for the “heaviest sentence possible.” Michael Appleton for The New York Times Colin Wright, the third officer on the hijacked Maersk Alabama, asked the court on Wednesday for the “heaviest sentence possible” for the hijacker, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse. “They threaten seamen’s lives, repeatedly.” Saw pirates as if they were from Disneyland. Captain Phillips wrote that he was concerned that the average citizen In court, Judge Preska read aloud from a letter from the ship’s captain, who had been held hostage in a lifeboat and repeatedly threatened. “I am very, very sorry about what I caused, and all of that was due to the problems that exist in Somalia.” “I got my hands into something that was more powerful than me,” he said, adding, Muse rose and spoke briefly through an interpreter, apologizing to his victims and to the United States government. Muse admitted after his arrest that he was over 18 when the hijacking occurred. Although no birth recordsįor him exist, they said, they determined from interviews with his family that he was about 16 at the time of the offense.Ī sentence of 27 years would be “a very harsh punishment against somebody who is clearly so young,” one lawyer, Fiona Doherty, said. Muse was a hired hand from a war-torn country who became involved in piracy because of poverty. Muse’s lawyers had asked for a sentence at the bottom of the range, arguing that Mr. “Indeed, it is this marked uptick in piracy and armed robbery at sea and the need to deter other individuals from undertaking this kind of conduct,” Judge Preska said, that “makes the higher sentence Preska, made clear that she saw deterrence as critical, citing a United Nations report that showed a sharp increase ![]() ![]() The government agreed to drop a charge of piracy, which carries a mandatory life sentence.īefore imposing the sentence at the top of that range, as prosecutors had requested, the judge, Loretta A. As part of the plea, his lawyers and prosecutors agreed that a reasonable sentence would be 27 years to 33 years and 9 months. Muse pleaded guilty in May to hijacking, hostage-taking, kidnapping and conspiracy. It will be his voice that they hear, and it will be his laugh that will haunt them.” Muse “relished in the suffering of his victims,” a prosecutor, Brendan R. ![]() MuseĪnd his men held the crew at gunpoint and even played Russian roulette with the captain, Richard Phillips. Muse led a group of pirates in the violent takeovers of three ships in March and April 2009, culminating in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama. “are not Johnny Depps,” a reference to “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Victim impact statements came from seamen, one of whom stressed that real-life pirates It is not often that a case of piracy on the high seas is adjudicated in New York, and the proceedings on Wednesday reflected that. The man, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, whose age is inĭispute, was the only survivor among four men who hijacked the Maersk Alabama on Apthe others were killed during a daring Navy Seal operation in which the ship’s captain was rescued. Eric Thayer/Reuters Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse at a 2009 court appearance.Ī Somali man who pleaded guilty to hijacking an American-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Africa in 2009 was sentenced on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan to 33 years and 9 months in prison.
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