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U.S. sentences two more Somali pirates to life in prison

05 October 2011 03:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. After sentencing two Somali pirates to life in prison a day earlier, a U.S. judge on Tuesday sentenced two more to spend the rest of their lives in federal prison for hijacking and killing two American couples on the high seas, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Federal Judge Mark Davis handed down the sentences at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, jailing Mohamud Salad Ali, 35, and 22-year-old Ahmed Sala Ali Burale. They both pleaded guilty. The piracy charge carries a mandatory life imprisonment sentence.

The pair were members of a pirate group that kidnapped a U.S. boat in February. The boat’s owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death after pirates took them hostage several hundred miles south of Oman. Ali acknowledged that he was a leader of the pirate group, but he played no role in the murder of the four Americans.

After the yacht was captured, U.S. Navy sent ships to track them, but negotiations went awry and gunfire was heard aboard the yacht. Special forces boarded the vessel and found the Americans shot dead.

In all, 13 pirates from Somalia and one from Yemen were indicted. Three others are facing death penalty and were being prosecuted separately on allegations that include murder.