Somali Teen Pirate Sentenced to 33 Years in Prison

NEW YORK -- A U.S. judge sentenced Somali pirate Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse to 33 years and nine months in prison this morning in a federal court in Manhattan. Muse pleaded guilty last year to charges stemming from his role in the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and the kidnapping of the ship's captain in the Indian Ocean.

"Today's sentence makes it clear that piracy on the high seas is a crime against the international community that will not be tolerated," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

But Muse's trial caused controversy over whether the Somali teenager is a cold-hearted criminal or merely a naive child.

According to the indictment, Muse was the ringleader of a band of pirates that boarded the Maersk Alabama at gunpoint in March 2009. He pointed a gun at one of the hostages and placed a device that appeared to be an explosive near another, indicating that the bomb would explode if authorities came to their rescue.

Federal prosecutors wrote in court papers that Muse took pleasure in terrorizing his captives and often pointed "his gun at the head of a hostage and pulled the trigger, laughing when the gun did not fire." He and the other pirates also reportedly pretended to execute Phillips while he was held hostage on a lifeboat.

A member of the Maersk Alabama crew told The Associated Press that the teenager was overjoyed to have captured an American boat and told him it was his dream to travel to America.

When Muse arrived in the United States in April 2009, he grinned at photographers as a slew of federal agents escorted him in chains and an oversized blue jumpsuit, his hand wrapped in bandages from a stab wound inflicted by a member of Maersk Alabama crew.

Muse's lawyers, who had asked Judge Preska for the minimum sentence of 27 years, said their client was driven to piracy by an impoverished life in a lawless country. His mother sells milk at a market and his father has a herd of camels, cows and goats, according to the AP.

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Muse is the oldest of 12 children, but his exact age is hotly contested. His mother said he was only 16 at the time of the incident. His lawyers said he was 15. But prosecutors eventually convinced a judge that he was 18 and could be tried as an adult.

Defense lawyer Deirdre von Dornum said that when Muse arrived in New York, he was smiling because he had never seen a camera before.

Muse's mother told the BBC that her son had been missing for two weeks before he appeared in headlines about the hijacking. She told the AP that he had been tricked into piracy by older kids. At various times during his trial, the 5-foot-2 defendant broke down in tears.

"I got my hands into something that was more powerful than me," Muse said through a translator before his sentencing, according to the AP.