Two Somali males who prosecutors known as pirates have been sentenced to 30 years in jail Tuesday within the 2012 kidnapping of an American journalist who was held hostage for over two years.
Abdi Yusuf Hassan and Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed — who had positions in Somalia’s authorities — have been “key gamers” within the abduction of journalist Michael Scott Moore, stated Damian Williams, the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of New York.
Moore was in Somalia investigating piracy when males with machine weapons and rocket-propelled grenades ambushed his automobile and took him hostage on Jan. 21, 2012, officers stated.
He was held hostage for 977 days because the pirates demanded a ransom, and at one level he was transferred to a ship that had been taken over by pirates and whose slain captain was saved in a freezer, the U.S. legal professional’s workplace stated.
Hassan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was Somalia’s inside minister however was additionally the top of the pirate group, prosecutors stated.
Mohamed, a Somali military officer, was head of safety and armorer for the pirates, the U.S. legal professional’s workplace stated.
Moore was freed in September 2014. He has stated his household raised $1.6 million for his launch, The Associated Press reported when a federal jury convicted Hassan and Mohamed in February 2023.
“For practically three years, Michael Scott Moore was held hostage in Somalia by pirates. He was crushed, chained to the ground, and threatened with assault rifles and machine weapons,” Williams, the U.S. legal professional, stated in a statement. “Hassan and Mohamed have been key gamers in that hostage taking.”
The obligatory minimal sentence is 30 years in jail.
Mohamed’s legal professional, Susan G. Kellman, argued in a courtroom submitting that “Mohamed’s life displays the chaos, violence, and turmoil of his homeland.” Moore stated in courtroom that Mohamed was “form” to him and didn’t punch him the best way his different captors did, she wrote, and Mohamed later offered Moore with images and different details about his ordeal for a e-book.
Kellman stated in an electronic mail Tuesday, “Sadly, this case is a chief instance of simply how Draconian obligatory minimal sentences are.” She stated they plan to attraction.
Prosecutors sought 30 years for Mohamed and 35 years for Hassan.
While prosecutors conceded that trial testimony described Mohamed as “mild,” they wrote, “The defendants’ conduct on this case is nothing lower than abhorrent.”
An legal professional listed as representing Hassan didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Piracy stays a risk off Somalia, though the United Nations stated in a 2021 report that progress has been made and that there was a decline in hijackings and different types of armed theft since 2011.