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NY TimesA Somali man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that he hijacked an American-flagged cargo ship and kidnapped its captain, in what the authorities called the first piracy prosecution in the United States in decades.
The man, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and hostage taking in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama container ship in April 2009. The highjacking ended with a daring high-seas rescue by United States naval forces and spotlighted the rampant problem of piracy off Somalia.
“What we did was wrong,” Mr. Muse, speaking through an interpreter, told United States District Judge Loretta A. Preska in Manhattan. “I am very, very sorry for the harm we did. The reason for this is the problems in Somalia.”
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop four of the six counts against him, including the most serious, “the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations,” which carries a mandatory life sentence.
Mr. Muse still faces substantial time that will put him in jail for much of his life. As part of the agreement, prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of at least 27 years but no more than 33 years and 9 months. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 19.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19pirate.html
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