Somali Man Arrested for Negotiating Ransom of Danish Ship

 

A Somali man was arrested last week for his role in the 2008 hijacking of a Danish merchant ship.

Ali Mohammed Ali, 48, was arrested last week at Dulles International Airport. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance April 26th in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Ali has been charged with conspiracy to commit piracy, piracy and additional crimes. If convicted he could spend life in prison.

He is the second person to be charged in the hijacking of the CEC FUTURE in 2008 off the Somali coast. Prosecutors claim that a group of pirates armed with AK-47s and RPG’s seized the ship on Nov. 7, 2008 and forced the captain to sail to various locations where Ali and other boarded. Ali is said to be responsible for demanding a ransom of $7 million and negotiating the ransom payment and release of the vessel and crew.

Two months after hijacking the CEC FUTURE the ship and its crew of 13 were released thanks to the payment of a $1.7 million ransom.

Jama Idle Ibrahim, 39, was also charged with hijacking the CEC FUTURE earlier this year. Ibrahim plead guilty to his charges and was sentenced to 25 years for his role in the attack. His sentence will run concurrently with a 30-year sentence he is already serving for a separate attack of a U.S. Navy ship.

Despite the ship being Danish owned, the U.S.  Attorney’s Office is prosecuting in this case because the cargo the ship was carrying at the time of the attack belonged to McDermott International, Inc., and engineering and construction company based in Houston.