Two Somali men, Abdi Yusuf Hassan—a naturalized U.S. citizen—and Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed of Mogadishu, have each received 30-year prison terms for their involvement in the 2012 kidnapping of American journalist Michael Scott Moore off the Somali coast. The two Somali pirates were convicted in 2023 following prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The abduction took place in Galkayo, Somalia, when armed men forcibly extracted Moore from his vehicle. The captors, wielding rifles and grenade launchers, initially transported Moore to a remote location. There, he was held alongside two fishermen from the Seychelles, who had been taken the previous year. The DOJ detailed that Moore endured severe maltreatment, including being chained at night, while being moved between a hijacked vessel and various safe houses.
According to the DOJ, Hassan—a former resident of Minneapolis—emerged as the operation leader, orchestrating activities from his residence and controlling ransom negotiations. Mohamed was identified as responsible for Moore’s security, training guards and managing the team overseeing Moore’s detention.
Over the extensive period of Moore’s captivity, the pirates demanded ransom payments from the U.S. government and coerced Moore into recording videos as proof of life. The journalist’s family managed to raise $1.6 million, ultimately securing his release in 2014.
Moore’s ordeal became public knowledge following the publication of his memoir, The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast, in 2018.
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