Fifth Somali guilty plea entered in piracy trial

(AP) – 2 hours ago

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Two more Somali men pleaded guilty on Monday to piracy for their roles in the hijacking of a yacht that left four Americans dead, including one who identified which of the 19 men fired at hostages aboard the boat.
Burhan Abdirahman Yusuf and Jilani Abdiali face mandatory life sentences, but as part of a plea agreement they could serve less time than that and eventually be deported to Somalia.
The duo are among 14 people from Somalia and one from Yemen facing charges related to the February hijacking of the yacht Quest. Three of those men have already pleaded guilty to piracy in plea deals.
The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death several days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman.
They were the first U.S. citizens killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years. Prosecutors said the men intended to bring the Americans to Somalia and hold them for ransom there. Pirates typically seek millions of dollars for hostages.
In a statement of facts Yusuf agreed to Monday, Yusuf said the 19 men who had taken control of the yacht would have split 65 percent of the ransom money among themselves and an interpreter. The other 35 percent would be given to a financier. In Abdiali's statement of facts, he said he saw that pirates were making a lot of money and had big houses and cars, so he spoke with a financier about joining a pirate expedition that ultimately led him to board the American yacht.
Their plan to make money fell through when U.S. Navy warships began shadowing the Quest.
Yusuf said a man aboard the yacht named Ibrahim was in charge at the time of the shooting. According to Yusuf, Ibrahim told the Navy, "We are not going to stop, you try to stop us if you can." Other court records say it was Ibrahim — who is among four pirates who died aboard the boat — who gave the order to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at a Navy ship as a warning shot.
Yusuf said some of the other men on board said they were going to massacre the hostages in order to get the U.S. boats to retreat.
Before the shooting, five men were guarding the Americans with guns pointed at them, including two who later died.
Yusuf identified Ahmed Muse Salad, Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar among the men who survived the ordeal and who fired on the hostages.
When U.S. special forces scrambled onto the occupied vessel, they found the Americans and two of the pirates' bodies. Two other pirates died in the operation.