By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN and MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Now Muse — the sole surviving Somali pirate from the hostage-taking of an American ship captain — is a world away in New York City to face what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the United States in more than a century. He smiled but said nothing Tuesday as he was led into a federal building under heavy guard.
"The last time I saw him he was in his school uniform," the teen's mother, Adar Abdirahman Hassan, 40, told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday from her home in the central Somali town of Galkayo. "He was brainwashed. People who are older than him outwitted him, people who are older than him duped him."
Muse's personal details are murky, with his parents in Somalia insisting he was tricked into getting involved in piracy. His age also remained unclear. His parents said he is only 16; law enforcement said he is at least 18, meaning prosecutors will not have to take extra legal steps to try him in a U.S. court.
Muse's mother said she has no records to prove his age, but she and the teen's father say he is 16.
"I never delivered my babies in a hospital," she said. "A traditional midwife helped me deliver."
A schoolmate, however, said he believed Muse was older.
"I think he was one or two years older than me, and I am 16," said Abdisalan Muse, reached by telephone in Galkayo. "We did not know him to be a pirate, but he was always with older boys, who are likely to be the ones corrupted him."
It is rare for Somalis to have formal birth records, and U.S. officials did not say on what basis they know he is 18.
The teenager was flown from Africa to New York, where he was being charged under two obscure federal laws that deal with piracy and hostage-taking, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.
Muse grew up poor, the child of a divorced mother, in one of the most impoverished, violent countries in the world — a nation of around 8 million people that has not had a functioning government since 1991. A quarter of Somali children die before age 5 and nearly every public institution has collapsed.
His mother sells milk at a small market every day, saving around $6 every month for school fees for her son.
"I cried when I saw the picture of him," Hassan said, referring to the photo of her son being led in handcuffs in New York. "Relatives brought a copy of the picture to me. Surely he is telling himself now, 'My mother's heart is broken.'"
Hassan reported from Mogadishu, Muhumed contributed from Nairobi, Kenya.
Source: AP, April 21, 2009