Saturday, July 23, 2011
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Three Somali men charged in a pirate attack the left four Americans dead on a hijacked yacht off the coast of Africa are due in a Virginia courtroom for arraignment on death-eligible charges.
The three are scheduled to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk on murder charges and other counts.
The defendants are among 14 men who were charged with piracy, kidnapping and weapons violations in the hijacking of the yacht Quest in February. The other men already have entered guilty pleas and agreed to cooperate with authorities.
The Quest's owners and two friends were shot to death after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman. They were the first U.S. citizens killed in a wave of pirate attacks.