Somali Pleads Guilty to Attack on Navy Ship

NORFOLK -- A Somali man pleaded guilty Friday to three charges in connection with an attack on a Little Creek-based Navy ship last April off the Horn of Africa.

Jama Idle Ibrahim's guilty plea amounts to "the first conviction in Norfolk for acts of piracy in more than 150 years," said Neil H. MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. However, the formal piracy charge brought against Ibrahim and five other Somalis in their attack on the Ashland was thrown out by a federal judge a week ago.

Prosecutors maintain that the counts that Ibrahim pleaded guilty to amount to "acts of piracy."

Ibrahim pleaded guilty to charges of attacking to plunder a vessel, engaging in an act of violence against people on a vessel and using a firearm during a crime of violence. Ibrahim and the others were charged with attacking the Ashland, an amphibious dock landing ship.

The three charges carry a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life in prison.

Ibrahim is the first of the six men to enter a guilty plea. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 29.

On Aug. 18, U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson threw out the piracy charge because, he said, "the government has failed to establish that any unauthorized acts of violence or aggression committed on the high seas constitutes piracy."

Jackson allowed seven other charges against the men to go forward; Ibrahim pleaded guilty to three of those charges.

Ibrahim also was charged Friday in Washington with conspiracy to commit piracy under the law of nations and conspiracy to use a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, according to a release from the U.S. attorney's office.

According to the release, Ibrahim admitted in court Friday, through his statement of facts in the plea agreement, that he and the other men were engaged in "acts of piracy." The statement said that all six men "were willing participants in this planned piracy; they set out to accomplish this piracy with a common purpose and each contributed to the goal of successfully pirating a merchant vessel."

According to the statements, Ibrahim and five other Somalis were looking for a merchant ship to attack and seize while they sailed off the Gulf of Aden, and their intent was to plunder the vessel and hold the crew and its contents for ransom.

They spotted a ship they thought was a merchant vessel, but it was the Ashland. The men chased the ship and when they were alongside, began firing at it and the crew aboard, according to the release.