Bartamaha ( Virginian):- Somali national Abdi Wali Dire said Thursday that he and his friends were out shark fishing one day when they were kidnapped, beaten and blindfolded for days before being forced to take part in a pirate attack.
This was the first time any of the five Somalis on trial in federal court for piracy have spoken publicly about the events that occurred in the middle of the Indian Ocean on April 1, when the Norfolk-based frigate Nicholas was attacked.
Speaking in his own defense from the witness stand, Dire told a story that was very different from what Navy officials say he told them after his capture. On cross examination from a federal prosecutor, Dire faltered at times but stuck to his version of events.
At times struggling to understand questions, Dire said he was an uneducated bus worker who turned to fishing when he was out of work. He said he did not know the meaning of words like “spelling” and “ladder.”
Fishing for sharks, or as he put it, “fish that would eat man,” was good money. A few days before April 1, he and his two friends were offshore in a small skiff when strangers approached.
“There were men who attacked us,” Dire said, speaking through an interpreter. “They started shooting and came on our boat and started beating us.”
He said the men threw away their fishing nets and gear as well as two sharks they had captured. They were blindfolded and tied to the side of the boat and kept there for days without food or water, he said.
“We asked, ‘What do you
want from us?’ ” he said. They said, ” ‘Keep silent. You cannot talk.’ “
At one point, someone put a gun to his head, he said.
In the middle of one night, Dire and his friends were untied and given two guns by the other men. They were told to move toward the distant light of a ship while the other men followed.
When they reached what turned out to be the Nicholas, he heard shots being fired from both sides. He said he remembered nothing about being captured by the Navy but denied being on the seas trying to hijack a merchant ship for ransom money.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John S. Davis tried to pick apart Dire’s story, even the bit about shark fishing, asking Dire whether he knew that shark fins were a delicacy used for soup in other countries.
“What I used to hear is it was exported,” Dire said.
When he wouldn’t know an answer, he often responded, “Only Allah knows that.” At times, Davis would ask Dire to explain an apparent implausibility.
“What good were you to the pirates if you had nothing to eat and were tied up and blindfolded?” Davis asked him.
“I cannot say,” Dire replied.
Or how the real pirates were able to replace their small broken motor with a larger, more powerful motor? Davis even showed a photo of Dire’s skiff with a motor that appeared to be bolted onto the back of the boat.
“You should ask that question of someone who has a memory,” Dire said. “I was worried whether I would live or I would die.”
Dire repeatedly denied that he ever told Navy officials that he was out to pirate a merchant vessel that night.
“No, I didn’t say that,” he would say. Or, “That never happened.”
The trial will continue today in U.S. District Court with testimony from some of the other defendants.
========================
Source:- The Virginian-Pilot
