Somali pirate faces life sentence in U.S.
11:2020/05/2009 NEW YORK, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - A teenage Somali pirate has been indicted with multiple piracy charges by a U.S. court and faces life in prison if found guilty, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Eighteen-year-old Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse is the only survivor of the gang of pirates that hijacked a U.S. container ship last month. The group held the captain, Richard Phillips, hostage for five days.
According to the indictment, Muse threatened the captain's of the Maersk Alabama vessel with a gun and "used a radio to communicate with representatives of the U.S. government and threatened to kill the captain unless his demands were satisfied."
The group later released the crew of the ship and held the captain hostage in a lifeboat. Three pirates were shot dead by U.S. snipers during the rescue operation.
Muse's lawyers failed to prove that their client was in fact only 15 years old and should be tried as a juvenile. The trial will begin on Thursday, and Muse is expected to enter a plea next week.
According to UN data, pirates operating off the coast of Somalia are currently holding at least 16 ships and about 270 hostages.
Naval forces from 16 countries, including Russia, are involved in anti-piracy operations in the area. Russia is currently holding twenty-nine suspected pirates who were taken prisoner by a Russian warship last month after an unsuccessful hijack attempt on a Liberian-flagged tanker.
President Dmitry Medvedev earlier urged Russian prosecutors to discuss with their foreign colleagues the possibility of creating an international piracy court.
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