And of course, they’re playing the victim card. What else? “Somali pirates sentenced in Va. to life in prison,” from AP, March 15 (thanks to Block Ness):
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Five Somali men convicted of attacking a Navy ship were sentenced to life in prison on Monday, the harshest sentences yet for accused pirates as the U.S. tries to halt piracy off Africa’s coast….
“I’m being judged on the basis of something I did not commit,” said Gabul Abdullah Ali.
Defense lawyers had argued the men were innocent fishermen who had been abducted by pirates and forced to fire their weapons at the ship.
But federal prosecutors argued during trial that the five had confessed to attacking the ship on April 1 after mistaking it for a merchant ship. The Nicholas, a frigate based in Norfolk, was part of an international flotilla fighting piracy in the seas off Somalia….
One of them, Abdi Mohammed Umar, said he didn’t understand why he was being sentenced to prison.
“I did not kill anybody. I did not rob anybody. I didn’t attack anybody,” he said through an interpreter. “I’d like to be told the reason I am found guilty in this case.”
Davis reminded Umar that a jury had heard the evidence and found him guilty of multiple charges….
Oh yeah.