Academics and international maritime actors have analysed the several dimensions of the threat to the global economy and global security that piracy off the Horn of Africa constitutes. There has since been a growing concern among international, regional and maritime actors about the potential threats posed by the phenomenon of piracy as long as Somali waters remain in a state of lawlessness. Muse's mother, Adar Abdirahman Hassan, who appealed to the US president, Barack Obama, for her son to be released, said he had been lured into piracy by "gangsters with money".The UN Security Council has issued ten resolutions dealing specifically with piracy off the coast of Somalia. "He just went with them without knowing what he was getting into," he said. Muse's father, Abdiqadir Muse, said his son was tricked by older pirates into going along. What we have is a confused teenager, overnight thrown into the highest level of the criminal justice system in the United States out of a country where there's no law at all." "We have a real concern that given the media coverage since the beginning, the jury might already be prejudiced. Jamal said he was worried that a fair trial would not be possible. The group, which is giving Muse legal advice, will be pressing for dental tests to ascertain his precise age. Omar Jamal, the director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Centre in Minnesota, said he was certain the defendant was a minor. The US authorities claimed he is at least 18 and liable for full prosecution as an adult.Ī US magistrate judge, Andrew J Peck, said today that Muse could be treated as an adult in US courts after a closed hearing during which he said Muse's father gave conflicting testimony about the ages of his children. His parents have said he is 16, which would categorise him as a child under federal law and, in turn, set strict limits on the nature of his trial and length of any sentence. Most problematic is the question of his age. His prosecution has raised difficult legal issues. Muse arrived in New York on Monday, handcuffed and with a bandage on his left hand over a wound incurred during a tussle on board the Maersk Alabama. US authorities decided to bring Muse to New York because he was arrested in international waters so could be prosecuted in any country, and because the FBI in New York became specialists in dealing with east African legal affairs following the al-Qaida embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Nearly two-thirds of this year's attacks – 61 in total – were within the Gulf of Aden and on the east coast of Somalia where Somali pirates operate. Between January and March there were 102 attacks worldwide, compared with 53 in the same period in 2008, the London-based IMB group said. The surge was overwhelmingly caused by Somalia's anarchic political situation spilling out into the sea. The raid on the cargo ship, which began on 8 April, was one of wave of hijackings off the Somali coast that disrupted international trade and cost millions of dollars in ransom money.įigures from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) show piracy around the world almost doubled in the first quarter of this year. In addition to piracy, he was charged with conspiracy to seize a ship by force discharging a firearm aiding and abetting the discharge of a firearm during a conspiracy to seize a ship by force conspiracy to commit hostage taking and brandishing a firearm. The multiple charges include piracy under the law of nations, which carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison. He was charged yesterday as an adult after a prosecutor said he gave wildly varying ages for himself but finally admitted he was 18. Muse was captured and taken aboard the USS Bainbridge this month, shortly before US snipers killed three of his fellow pirates holding Richard Phillips, the Alabama's captain.
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