NORFOLK, Va. — A federal judge sentenced two more Somali pirates to life in prison without parole for their roles in the shooting deaths of four Americans aboard their yacht off the coast of Africa.
Chief District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith sentenced Abukar Osman Beyle, 33, and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar, 31, to serve 21 life sentences in all, 19 of them consecutively, during hearings on Wednesday and Thursday. They each received the same term as Ahmed Muse Salad, 27, who was sentenced on Tuesday. Prosecutors had originally sought the death penalty, but a jury didn’t agree to that sentence.
The yacht’s owners, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., and their friends, Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were the first Americans to be killed in a wave of pirate attacks that have plagued the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean in recent years.
