A Somali national, found guilty of negotiating the ransom from the United States and Indian nationals held hostage on the high seas, has been sentenced by a United States court to multiple concurrent life sentences.
Mohammad Saaili Shibin, has been convicted for negotiating the ransom for an American yacht, the S/V Quest, and’Marida Marguerite, a German-owned vessel manned primarily by Indian seafarers.
Mohammad Shibin was convicted in April on 15 charges including piracy, hostage taking, kidnapping and conspiracy. Somali pirate negotiator was paid $30,000-$50,000 in cash for his negotiating services.
Several Indian crew members of the German-owned vessel provided crucial testimony regarding the hijacking and their 8-months in captivity in Somalia, acknowledging the role played by the Indian seafarers in bringing Somali pirates to justice, US officials said.
Somali pirate negotiator jailed for life / 12 life sentences for Mohammad Shibin
Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle from Seattle were killed by pirates along with Jean and Scott Adam from California in February 2011. All four Americans on board the boat were shot and killed.
At a courtroom in Norfolk, Virginia, US District Judge Robert Doumar sentenced Shibin to serve 10 concurrent life sentences, two consecutive life sentences and two 20-year sentences and ordered him to pay $5,4 million in restitution.
The US court was told that Somali pirate negotiator Mohammad Shibin had researched the background of the hostages over the internet to determine how much ransom to demand and to find family members to contact for the payments.
Mohammad Shibin was arrested by the FBI and military officials in Somalia in April last year. His lawyer has said he intends to appeal against his conviction. 2 other Somalis also charged in the case pleaded guilty last year and were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Several others involved in the hijacking have also received life terms, while some face murder charges and the possibility of the death penalty. The American couple who owned the boat, as well as 2 guests, were shot dead after a gang of 19 pirates took them hostage in the Indian Ocean.
The 4 – Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, California, and friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay, of Seattle – were the first Americans to die in a spate of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden. Two of the pirates were killed by United States forces and another 2 were found dead on the pirates’ vessel. It is still unclear how they died.
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