Somali pirates get life

NORFOLK, Va. - A pair of Somalian men were sentenced to life in prison Monday for their roles in the hijacking of a yacht that left all four Americans on board dead. One of the men argued he had unsuccessfully tried to persuade his fellow pirates that the two women on board should be released.

The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death in February several days after being taken hostage several hundred miles south of Oman.

A band of pirates had hoped to take the Americans back to Somalia so they could be ransomed, but the plan fell apart when four U.S. Navy warships began shadowing them.

During sentencing in federal court, Burhan Abdirahman Yusuf's attorney, Robert Rigney, said Yusuf had argued that Jean Adam and Phyllis Macay should be released. However, Yusuf was only a guard aboard the boat and was not considered a leader by the others.

Yusuf told U.S. District Judge Mark Davis through an interpreter that before violence broke out aboard the yacht, he had wanted to leave but was not allowed to do so by the other pirates.

Earlier in the day, Ali Abdi Mohamed also expressed remorse about the Americans' deaths.

Yusuf and Mohamed are the first of 11 men who have pleaded guilty to piracy in the case to be sentenced.