Somali Pirate Kingpin Gets 20 Years in Jail
A Belgian court docket has sentenced a former Somali pirate kingpin to twenty years in jail over the 2009 hijacking of a Belgian ship off the coast of Somali.
Mohamed Abdi Hassan, also called Afwayne, introduced his retirement from piracy in January 2013 to advocate towards piracy, however his previous dealings caught as much as him later that yr when he was lured into Belgium and arrested by authorities upon his arrival.
Hassan was convicted of crimes associated to the hijacking of the Belgian ship Pompeii in 2009 and sentenced Monday to twenty years by the Bruges Criminal Court in northwest Belgium. The ship’s 10 crew members have been held by Somali pirates for greater than two months earlier than a ransom of greater than $2 million was paid for his or her launch.
During the peak of Somali piracy in 2011, Hassan was so notorious that the United Nations even referred to as him “one of the most notorious and influential leaders” within the Somali pirate enterprise.
Hassan is predicted to attraction the sentence, in response to media stories. Another suspect captured together with Hassan in 2013 was additionally sentenced to five years in jail.
Here’s some video of Hassan saying his retirement in 2013: