{"id":570312,"date":"2010-05-19T10:04:54","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T14:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/05\/somalia-piracy-suspect-pleads-guilty-in-federal-court.php"},"modified":"2010-05-19T10:04:54","modified_gmt":"2010-05-19T14:04:54","slug":"somalia-piracy-suspect-pleads-guilty-in-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/570312","title":{"rendered":"Somalia piracy suspect pleads guilty in federal court"},"content":{"rendered":"<table align=\"left\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jurist.law.pitt.edu\/topstoryphoto\/frontpirates.jpg\" alt=\"Photo source or description\" valign=\"top\" align=\"left\" border=\"1\" hspace=\"0\" vspace=\"4\"><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jurist.law.pitt.edu\/images\/s.gif\" border=\"0\" height=\"1\" width=\"5\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>[JURIST] A Somali man charged with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jurist.org\/jurist_search.php?q=pirates\">piracy<\/a> [JURIST news archive] pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of hijacking, kidnapping, and hostage taking related to last April&#8217;s attack on the US container ship <a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalsecurity.org\/military\/systems\/ship\/maersk-a.htm\">Maersk Alabama<\/a> [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was originally <a href=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/packages\/pdf\/nyregion\/22pirate_Complaint.pdf\">charged<\/a> [complaint, PDF; JURIST <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2009\/04\/federal-court-to-try-somali-piracy.php\">report<\/a>] with five counts relating to the pirate attack on the Alabama, including committing an act of piracy as defined by the law of nations, conspiracy to seize a ship by force, conspiracy to take hostages, and two counts relating to the use of a firearm during commission of a crime. As part of a plea agreement, the prosecution agreed to drop the charges of piracy against Muse in exchange for his guilty plea and a sentence of 27 to 33 years in prison. Muse agreed not to challenge the sentence, and he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSTRE64H6QS20100518?type=domesticNews&#038;feedType=RSS&#038;feedName=domesticNews\">apologized<\/a> [Reuters report] for his actions, claiming the act of piracy happened because of the current situation in Somalia. Somali officials have <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/world\/africa\/10126248.stm\">criticized<\/a> [BBC report] the US for exercising jurisdiction over Muse and other <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/05\/done-9-somalis-plead-not-guilty-to-piracy-charges.php\">pirate suspects<\/a> [JURIST report], insisting that piracy prosecutions should be conducted by an international tribunal. They have also asked that Somali pirate suspects be returned to Somalia, which lacks a functioning central government to address the piracy problem. Muse is scheduled to be sentenced on October 19.  <\/p>\n<p>Piracy remains an issue of international concern.  On Monday, the executive director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unodc.org\/unodc\/index.html?ref=menutop\">UN Office on Drugs and Crime<\/a> (UNODC) [official website] opened a UN conference on international crime by <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/05\/un-official-stresses-need-for-international-efforts-in-fighting-organized-crime.php\">warning<\/a> [JURIST report] about the inadequacies of the current international system in dealing with crimes like piracy.  Earlier this month, the UNODC <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/05\/seychelles-announces-creation-of-un-backed-piracy-court.php\">announced<\/a> [JURIST report] that Seychelles will create a UN-supported center to prosecute suspected pirates. Last month, the UN Security Council <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/04\/un-security-council-urges-international.php\">unanimously approved<\/a> [JURIST report] a resolution calling on member states to criminalize piracy under their domestic laws and urging <a href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/sg\/\">Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon<\/a> [official website] to consider an international tribunal for prosecuting piracy. The Security Council resolution came the same week the UN announced that a trust fund established to combat piracy will be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/apps\/news\/story.asp?NewsID=34472&#038;Cr=somali&#038;Cr1=\">funding five projects<\/a> [UN News Centre report] aimed at piracy committed in the waters around Somalia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[JURIST] A Somali man charged with piracy [JURIST news archive] pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of hijacking, kidnapping, and hostage taking related to last April&#8217;s attack on the US container ship Maersk Alabama [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was originally charged [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] with five counts relating to the pirate attack on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6949,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6949"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}