Five Somalis found guilty of piracy charges in Norfolk

NORFOLK

In a historic decision Wednesday, a jury in federal court convicted five Somali nationals of piracy in the April 1 attack on the Norfolk-based frigate Nicholas.

They face mandatory terms of life in prison when they are sentenced March 14.

It's the first time in nearly 200 years that a jury returned a guilty verdict in a piracy case in a U.S. court, a verdict that likely sets up years of appeals.

The Somalis - Mohammed Modin Hasan, Gabul Abdullahi Ali, Abdi Wali Dire, Abdi Mohammed Gurewardher and Abdi Mohammed Umar - all were found guilty of piracy under the law of nations and 13 related counts.

Each defendant stood without expression as the court clerk read from the verdict sheet, announcing "guilty" 70 times. Later, after the judge and jury left, defendant Gurewardher became visibly upset, waving off his attorney and refusing to sign papers that had been pushed in front of him.

"He'd been stoic throughout," Gurewardher's attorney, Jon Babineau, said. "Now he knows he's going to die in a U.S. prison unless there is some appellate success."

The defendants, dressed in collared shirts and oversized sport coats borrowed from the court, sat quietly through the 12-day trial, listening through ear pieces as a translator interpreted the testimony.

U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said he hopes the convictions will send a message to other would-be pirates that such attacks won't be tolerated.

"Today's conviction demonstrates that armed attacks on U.S.-flagged vessels are crimes against the international community and that pirates will face severe consequences in U.S. courts," MacBride said in a conference call afterward.

Defense attorneys balked at that notion, pointing out that pirate attacks are continuing at a record rate this year. Somali pirates are currently holding 18 merchant ships and 380 crew members hostage while awaiting ransom payments.

"There's no way for them to get the message over there," said William Holmes, who represented Ali.

David Bouchard, who defended Dire, questioned the resources that have been put into this case and expense that the government now faces housing the men for the rest of their lives.

Bouchard did the math: If the defendants, all in their mid-20s, live another 50 years it will cost the government $10 million to house them, assuming the cost remains at roughly $40,000 a year per inmate.

"And for what?" Bouchard asked. "I could see if they killed somebody or actually got on the ship."

Bouchard described the five Somalis as the Marx Brothers of piracy. Dire, Ali and Hasan were in a small skiff, armed with AK-47s and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, when they mistook the Nicholas for a merchant vessel. According to the government, they fired several shots and fled after realizing their mistake.

Those three were captured a short time later. The other two, Umar and Gurewardher, were caught a few hours later floating in a broken-down mother ship, loaded with enough fuel and water to last several weeks.

The jury apparently did not buy the explanations of the five men. Three testified that they had been kidnapped by real pirates and forced to take part in the attack. The government has acknowledged that a third vessel had gotten away that night, but points to the confessions of the men, who told investigators that 10 of them left Somalia in three boats intent on capturing a merchant vessel for ransom.

This is the first time since the Civil War that a jury has been asked to rule on a piracy case, according to legal scholars. That ended in a hung jury. The last jury conviction of pirates is believed to have occurred in 1819, which set a U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

This case, and a related one involving an attack on the Ashland, a Little Creek-based amphibious dock landing ship, will also likely set precedent.

The Ashland case is already on appeal. Another judge in the Norfolk federal court threw out the piracy charge, putting that trial on hold. The Nicholas case will now go to the same appeals court, setting up a likely showdown with both before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Babineau, the lawyer for Gurewardher, said not only is the definition of piracy at issue but the harsh U.S. penalty for it should be challenged as well. He cited a piracy trial currently ongoing in Germany where the defendants would face a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted. Other countries, such as the Netherlands, have even less severe penalties. In other attacks, pirates have simply been sent home, he said.

"I just have a hard time making sense of that in a system that's supposedly based on fairness," he said.

Babineau tried to keep his client's spirits up. As marshals began leading the Somalis out of court, Babineau held out his arm and gave Gurewardher a fist pump, telling him to "hang in there."

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com