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By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi, April 22, 2009
The mother of the Somali piracy suspect being held for trial in the
United States is appealing for mercy for her son. She says he did not
know what he was doing when he and three other men boarded a
U.S.-flagged ship earlier this month and took the ship's captain
hostage. But that opinion contrasts sharply with the description
outlined by U.S. investigators and the now freed captain, who say the
alleged pirate was the ringleader of the operation.
From the central Somali town of Galkayo, the mother of the alleged
pirate, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, appealed to President Barack Obama to
release her son, whom she described as a "talented boy" and "a good
student."
Adar Abdirahman Hassan, who has four other children, tells VOA that the
family is dirt poor. She says she believes Muse was tricked into
becoming a pirate by men who falsely promised him money.
She says her oldest boy is only 16 years old and impressionable.
Hassan says her son was doing well at school and had even hoped to study
in the United States someday. But late last month, Muse failed to come
home from school. She says 15 days after he disappeared, she heard on
the radio that her son had been captured by the Americans as a suspected
pirate.
Hassan says it breaks her heart to think that he will be tried as an
adult criminal in the United States.
U.S. prosecutors say Muse is the sole survivor of a hijacking attempt on
a U.S.-flagged ship off the coast of Somalia on April 8. The capture of
the Maersk Alabama made news around the world after the pirates let the
ship and its 20 crew members go, but took the ship's captain hostage in
an enclosed lifeboat.
Four days later, U.S. Navy snipers killed three of the hijackers and
rescued the captain, Richard Phillips.
Muse was subsequently flown from the Horn of Africa to New York, where
he was charged Tuesday with five counts, including piracy.
In a criminal complaint filed by a Federal Bureau of Investigations
agent, Captain Phillips describes Muse much differently than the naïve,
young boy his mother portrays him to be.
Phillips told the FBI agent that Muse was the first to board his ship
and, in his words, "conducted himself as the leader of the pirates"
Phillips said while the pirates held him hostage aboard the lifeboat,
Muse told him he had hijacked other ships before.
A New York federal court judge has ruled that Muse is at least 18
years-old and can be tried as an adult. But his mother's claim that he
is a 16-year-old juvenile could pose a problem for prosecutors seeking
the maximum sentence of life imprisonment. International law is more
lenient toward juveniles.
Determining Muse's true age is difficult because birth certificates are
rare in Somalia, a country which has not had a functioning government
for nearly two decades.
Source: VOA, April 22, 2009
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