Somali pirate held in solitary confinement for more than a year: court papers

Publish date: 2024-04-23

The Somali pirate who led the 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship was locked up in solitary confinement for allegedly ordering the murder of another hijacked vessel’s captain from jail, court papers filed this morning reveal.

Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse was tossed into a “small cell with blackened windows” in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on orders from Attorney General Eric Holder on Jan. 15, 2010, defense lawyers wrote.

The directive followed an FBI interview of Gilbert Victor, the freed captain of a hijacked yacht named the Serenity, who said a Somali pirate told him that Muse “had sent a message from prison ‘instructing the pirate crew to kill the captain of the Win Far 161.'”

“According to the government, Victor’s account was corroborated by ‘two of Muse’s prison call recordings,'” the Manhattan federal court filing says.

The Win Far 161, a Taiwanese fishing vessel with a crew of about 30, was hijacked in April 2009 and held for 10 months until its owner paid an unspecified ransom to secure its release.

Muse’s lawyers deny that he threatened the Win Far 161’s captain, insisting that the feds “mistranslated” certain Somali words and “misinterpreted” his phone conversations with a woman they identify as his mother.

The defense also says that the August 2009 calls came more than a month after Victor claims to have heard about the threat, and that Victor has “credibility problems,” suggesting that the Serenity may have been carrying a shipment of drugs when it was hijacked.

Although the order subjecting Muse to solitary confinement expired last month, “MCC staff have recently decided that he will remain in isolation pending review by the warden,” the court papers say.

Muse’s lawyers filed the papers in a bid for leniency in the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, whose captain, Richard Phillips, was held hostage for several days until US Navy snipers killed Muse’s three accomplices.

The defense cited unspecified “significant mental health problems” that Muse has suffered behind bars, along with a brutally impoverished childhood that made the “temptations of piracy” impossible to resist.

Muse’s lawyers also note his mom’s claim that he is “currently 17 or 18” years old, in contrast to government assertions that he’s 21.

Under terms of his plea deal, Muse faces 27 to 33 3/4 years in the slammer when he’s sentenced Feb. 16.

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