L. Todd Spencer/ASSOCIATED PRESS- Mohammad
Saaili Shibin, a Somali man accused of acting as chief negotiator for
pirates who took four Americans hostage and killed them in February,
lost an appeal to overturn his criminal conviction Friday.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
The three judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in the case of Mohammad Saaili Shibin, who has been sentenced to 12 life terms for his pivotal role in two hijackings, which included the slaying of four Americans on their yacht off Somalia.
A panel of federal judges on Friday upheld the criminal conviction of the highest-ranking pirate caught by the U.S. government.
The three judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
unanimously in the case of Mohammad Saaili Shibin, who has been
sentenced to 12 life terms for his pivotal role in two hijackings, which
included the slaying of four Americans on their yacht off Somalia.
Shibin was a multilingual negotiator based in lawless Somalia. He
worked his cellphone to negotiate multimillion-dollar ransoms for ships
that dared to venture into pirate-infested international waters off
Africa. He was captured in Somalia.
His attorneys argued that since his work was land-based, he could not be convicted of piracy.
The judges, however, wrote that piracy was not limited to acts on the
high seas. The judges compared his involvement and culpability to any
criminal action, on land or sea.
"For example, to be convicted of aiding and abetting a bank robbery,
one need not be inside the bank," Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote.
James O. Broccoletti, who argued the case before the appeals panel for
Shibin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The
Associated Press.
Shibin, who has been called the highest-ranking pirate captured by the
U.S., conducted negotiations for pirates who seized the German merchant
ship the Marida Marguerite in May 2010 and the yacht Quest in February
2011, both off Somalia.