Bartamaha (Washigton):- A federal judge in Virginia sentenced a Somali man to 30 years in prison Monday after he pleaded guilty to his role in an April attack on a US Navy vessel off the coast of Africa.
Jama Idle Ibrahim was sentenced on three charges related to the April 10 attack on the USS Ashland amphibious dock landing ship: attacking to plunder a vessel, engaging in an act of violence against persons on a vessel and using a firearm during a crime of violence.
In August, a federal judge dismissed different charges of piracy against Ibrahim and five other Somalis, who allegedly mistook the Ashland for a merchant vessel.
“Today marks the first sentencing in Norfolk for acts of piracy in more than 150 years,” US Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement.
“Piracy is a growing threat throughout the world, and today’s sentence, along with last week’s convictions, demonstrates that the United States will hold modern-day pirates accountable in US courtrooms.”
Last week, a Norfolk jury found five Somalis guilty of piracy for attacking another US Navy ship, the USS Nicholas frigate, also in April. They now face life in prison if sentenced as convicted at a hearing set for March 14.
Piracy has long been a problem in the Indian Ocean off Somalia, where the lack of a functioning government over most of the last 15 years has turned its vast coastline into a refuge for criminal gangs.
But the number of attacks and the ransoms demanded have spiked over the past two years, according to the London-based International Maritime Bureau.
Warships now patrol the Indian Ocean after a series of spectacular hijackings in the Gulf of Aden propelled Somali piracy to the forefront of international attention in late 2008 and early 2009.
Pirates now hold about 30 ships and more than 500 sailors, according to the Ecoterra International group, which tracks piracy in the region.
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Source:- AFP.
