![]() "But if they’re not going to allow armed security, I think we should be able to protect ourselves with small arms." "We need some protection aboard our vessels and having armed security is very good, if they would put armed security on every ship," he said. He said U.S.-flagged ships need to be armed. However, the court found that Muse was over 18 at the time of the hijackings.Ĭolin Wright said he has returned to his work as a sailor, but still does not feel safe. Muse’s attorneys contended that extreme poverty led him to piracy, and that he was still in his mid-teens. Prior to his sentencing, Muse told the court through a translator that he was "very sorry," and asked forgiveness from those he had harmed. Muse had pleaded guilty in May to six counts related to hijacking maritime vessels, kidnapping and hostage-taking. And a sentence of 33, nearly 34 years, seems like a fairly short one for that." "He’s also responsible for his three companions being killed. "Seems like a very short time for the pain and trauma that he and his companions have caused," said Wright. Colin Wright, who had been third officer on the ship and spoke at the hearing, later told reporters that the sentence was not too harsh. Navy snipers shot and killed his three accomplices, rescuing Phillips. Muse, whom prosecutors said was the leader, allegedly fired an AK-47 assault rifle at the captain, Richard Phillips, and ordered him to stop the ship. District Judge Loretta Preska, saying Muse and his accomplices appeared to "relish their most depraved acts of physical and psychological violence," said a longer sentence was needed to deter other pirates.įollowing takeovers of two other ships, Muse and three accomplices climbed aboard the Maersk Alabama on April 8, 2009. Muse’s lawyers had sought the minimum, more lenient sentence of 27 years. They asked him if he wanted beer, thinking that all Americans loved beer.A federal judge in New York has sentenced Somali pirate Abduwali Muse to 33 years and nine months in prison for hijacking a container ship in the Indian Ocean, taking the captain hostage, and for his role in two earlier ship hijackings.Ībduwali Abdiqadir Muse was sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison in an emotional hearing that included testimony from a survivor of the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, an American-flagged container ship, off the coast of Somalia. ![]() (Though Phillips says he just darted past him, rather than pretending to go to the bathroom himself.) After that, Phillips says the pirates beat him, started playing mind games with him (he was becoming paranoid), and performed mock executions. But the real hijackers might not have been quite so isolated: According to the Associated Press, officials said they were communicating with other pirate boats via satellite phone.Īs in the movie, things got much worse after Phillips tried to escape, while one of the pirates was urinating off the boat. (Phillips says he really did have to suggest that they remove their clips before using a gun to break the window.) Phillips also describes how the pirates “claimed they were former fishermen who’d been forced into banditry when their livelihoods disappeared,” just as they do in the movie. Over those five days, the extreme heat raised tensions, and the pirates broke the boat’s windows to let in some air. In the movie, Phillips says things like, “If you want to shoot someone, shoot me!” But Phillips says that he never meant to sacrifice himself for the crew. Though he was made a hero by ensuing media reports, Phillips doesn’t call himself a hero for these actions. But after Phillips went down to the lifeboat to help the pirates get it started, the hijackers kept Phillips and reneged on the deal. This shifted the balance of power, and the crew was eventually able to negotiate an exchange of Muse for Phillips. (According to the book, they all had sandals.)Īs in the movie, it was chief engineer Mike Perry that scuffled with Muse in the dark of the engine room and, after badly cutting Muse’s hand, used the knife to take him hostage. The book, for example, never describes a barefoot pirate stumbling on a field of broken glass, left by the crew as a booby trap. The crew’s efforts to take the ship back are also largely accurate, though some details seem to be invented. They really did offer the pirates the $30,000 from Phillips’ safe, but the hijackers wanted much more. He pretended he didn’t understand them, that the ship was “broken,” and he surreptitiously turned on his radio to sneak news to his crew. Business or not, Phillips tried to slow their progress any way he could.
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