{"id":7609,"date":"2013-08-02T23:44:45","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T23:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/us-jury-gives-somali-pirates-life-sentence\/"},"modified":"2013-08-02T23:44:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T23:44:45","slug":"us-jury-gives-somali-pirates-life-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/us-jury-gives-somali-pirates-life-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"US jury gives Somali pirates life sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three convicted Somali pirates avoided the death penalty Friday when a US jury sentenced them to life in prison for the high-seas murder of four Americans in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Ahmed Muse Salad, Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar for the February 2011 shooting deaths aboard a 58-foot (17.7-meter) yacht.<\/p>\n

The boat’s owners Scott Adam, 70, and Jean Adam, 66, both retirees from the Los Angeles suburb of Marina del Rey, had set off from New Zealand to fulfill a lifelong dream of sailing around the world.<\/p>\n

Their friends Bob Riggle, 67, and Phyllis Macay of Seattle had joined them for the ill-fated Indian Ocean leg.<\/p>\n

They were the first Americans killed in a dramatic outbreak of Somali-based maritime piracy off the Horn of Africa that has since waned significantly in the face of stepped-up international naval patrols.<\/p>\n

After two days of deliberation in Norfolk, Virginia — home to the US Navy’s Atlantic fleet — the jury of seven women and five men on Friday returned a sentence of life imprisonment, court sources said.<\/p>\n

Salad’s lawyer Michael Nachmanoff told AFP the jurors were unanimous in their decision.<\/p>\n

“We’re very grateful they spared the lives of our clients,” he said, adding that the three men would serve their time in the federal prison system without parole.<\/p>\n

The trio had earlier been found guilty of all 26 charges against them, including piracy, which carries a mandatory life sentence, and 22 other counts eligible for the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Nearly two dozen people have been convicted in US courts as part of a global crackdown on Somali-linked piracy — but this was the first case in the United States in which the death penalty was sought.<\/p>\n

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