NORFOLK, Va. – Five Somali men accused of attacking a U.S. Navy ship off Africa's coast were convicted on federal piracy charges Monday, in what experts said was the first trial of its kind since the Civil War.
The verdict was handed down by a jury in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. The five men stood silently as the verdict was read. They face mandatory life terms at a sentencing hearing set for March 14 in Norfolk.
Defense lawyers had argued the men were innocent fishermen who had been abducted by pirates and forced to fire their weapons at the ship.
John S. Davis, an assistant U.S. attorney, had argued that three of the men were in a skiff that opened fire on the Nicholas with assault rifles, then fled when sailors returned fire with machine guns. He said all the men later confessed to the attack in a confession to an interpreter aboard the Nicholas. He said they expected to make anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 from the ransom. |