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Judge Jettisons Piracy Charges against Somalis

By Joe Palazzolo

Six Somali men who were captured at sea after an attack on a Navy ship off the coast of East Africa cannot be tried as pirates, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The piracy charges stemmed from an April 10 incident in the Gulf of Aden, when a small skiff approached the USS Ashland and, according to prosecutors, someone on the skiff fired a shot at the 610-foot ship.

The dock landing ship returned fire with its 25 mm cannons, destroying the skiff and killing one of its passengers. The men on board were captured and indicted on eight counts that included piracy, the most serious of the charge against them, which carries a life sentence.

Judge Raymond Jackson, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in his ruling that the government ?failed to establish that any unauthorized acts of violence or aggression committed on the high seas constitutes piracy? as defined under federal law, The New York Times reported.

Jackson also wrote that ?the definition of piracy in the international community is unclear? and that ?the court?s reliance on these international sources as authoritative would not meet constitutional muster and must therefore be rejected.?

Defense attorneys argued last month that the defendants did not meet the legal definition of pirates because they did not take command of the ship or attempt to rob it. The Somalis said they were carrying refugees at the time of the encounter.

The piracy charge carried the longest sentence, but seven others, including “act of violence against persons on a vessel” and ?attack to plunder a vessel,” still stand against the men.

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 18, 2010 (boomark / email).