RICHMOND – A man accused of negotiating ransoms on behalf of Somali pirates used his cellphone to search for information about four Americans days before they were killed in their yacht off the coast of Africa in February, the US government revealed in court filings.
The details about Mohammad Saaili Shibin’s arrest in Somalia and interrogation by US officials were contained in the government’s response to a defense claim that he was unlawfully questioned aboard a government plane.
The government responded Monday that the FBI “studiously followed the law of interrogation’’ and that Shibin was “fully capable of understanding his rights and making an informed and voluntary decision regarding whether to speak to the agents without an attorney present.’’
Shibin is charged with piracy, kidnapping, and weapons charges for his alleged role in the February hijacking of the yacht Quest. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have said Shibin never boarded the Quest, but operated from Somalia to determine how much ransom the hostages could fetch. He is considered the highest-ranking suspected pirate the United States has prosecuted.
The government filing in US District Court in Norfolk describes Shibin as a 50-year-old former oil worker who speaks English, Arabic, and some Italian. He was a translator and dispatcher before he was laid off by African Oil Corp., the government said.
Shibin acknowledged negotiating the release of a German ship for several million dollars in December 2010 and receiving a $30,000 payment for that role, prosecutors said.
The Quest’s owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., and their friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle were killed several days after being taken hostage hundreds of miles south of Oman as the Navy attempted to negotiate their rescue.
The Navy told the pirates that they could keep the yacht in exchange for the hostages, but they refused to take the deal because they didn’t believe they would get enough money.
According to court documents, one of the pirates fired a shot above Scott Adam’s head and told him to tell the Navy that if they came any closer, the Americans would be killed. Soon after, one of the pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the USS Sterett, where two other pirates were on board conducting the negotiations, the court records show.
The four Americans were being held in the yacht’s steering wheelhouse on Feb. 22 when they were killed without provocation, according to court records.
This article was posted by MaritimeSecurity.Asia via boston.com. To find out more, please visit MaritimeSecurity.Asia
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