Jailed Maersk Pirate Ordered Hit On Ship Captain

Jailed Maersk Pirate Ordered Hit On Ship Captain







Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse was moved to solitary confinement after reports emerged that he had ordered the murder of a ships captain, from prison.







The target was the captain of the Win Far 161, a Taiwanese fishing vessel that was hijacked in April 2009 and later released on ransom in February 2010, with all 28 crew member and officer safe and well.







Muse has been in solitary confinement for a year; ever since the captain of a yacht that was seized by pirates and later released, told investigators that one of his captors repeatedly told him that Muse had order them to kill that captain of the Win Far 161. The orders were given in July or August of 2009, when Muse was in prison. Authorities where Muse is being held report that the captains account matches up with two of Muse’s phone call recordings.







Following the calls, Muse’s communication was severely limited. He is allowed one 15-minute phone call to his mother a month, radio and television privileges have been taken away and his reading materials have been severely limited. In addition he is not allowed to exercise outside or attend religious services and all of his meals must be eaten in his cell.







Muse’s lawyers say that the prison misinterpreted the phone calls and deny the claims that their client ordered a murder from prison.







Muse, who will be sentenced on February 16, plead guilty to leading four pirates in the attack on the U.S. flagged Maersk Alabama on April 8, 2009. During the attack pirates took the ships captain, Richard Phillips, hostage on a 28-foot lifeboat. Negotiations with the pirates were unsuccessfully until heavy winds and rough seas ensued. Eventually the pirates surrendered on April 12, 2009 and Capt. Phillips was rescued.







Lawyers for the Somali man are asking for the minimum sentence of 27 years in prison. They blame the difficult circumstances of his childhood for his actions the day he led the attack. Court papers say he suffered from hunger and malnutrition as a child and was living on his own and fending for himself by age 11. The lawyers also claim that Muse moved to the coast to become a fisherman but eventually ended up working with pirates, and was just 16 when he attacked the Maersk Alabama.







However, there remains some dispute about Muse’s age; the prison system lists him at 21.



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The 28 foot lifeboat where Captain Richard Phillips and the four Somali pirates were held up as seen from a US Navy Scan Eagle UAV.