By BENJAMIN WEISER
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
 Eric Thayer/ReutersAbduwali Abdukhadir Muse at a 2009 court appearance. |
A Somali man who pleaded guilty to hijacking an American-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Africa in 2009 was sentenced in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday to 33 years and 9 months in prison.
The man, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, whose age is in dispute, was the only survivor among four men who hijacked the Maersk Alabama on April 8, 2009; the three others were killed during a daring Navy Seal operation in which the ship’s captain was rescued.
Mr. Muse pleaded guilty last May to hijacking, hostage-taking, kidnapping, and conspiracy. As part of the deal, his lawyers and prosecutors agreed that a reasonable sentence would be in the range of 27 years to 33 years and 9 months.
The government, in a memo to the judge, Loretta A. Preska, asked for a sentence at the top of that range; prosecutors said Mr. Muse had led a violent takeover of three ships during a five-week period, culminating in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.
Mr. Muse’s lawyers sought leniency and a sentence at the bottom of the range. They cited their client’s youth and the desperately poor conditions in which he grew up in his war-torn country.
In return for the plea, the United States attorney’s office agreed to drop a charge of piracy, which carried a mandatory life sentence.
Mr. Muse’s lawyers contend that his birth records do not exist, but that from interviews with his family, they have determined that he was about 16 at the time of the offense, and is now 17 or 18. The government has said Mr. Muse admitted after his arrest that he was older than 18.
Source: NY Times