2 Somali men sentenced to 30 years in kidnapping and imprisonment of U.S. journalist

Two Somali men who prosecutors called pirates were sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday in the 2012 kidnapping of an American journalist who was held hostage for over two years.

Abdi Yusuf Hassan and Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed — who had positions in Somalia’s government — were “key players” in the abduction of journalist Michael Scott Moore, said Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Moore was in Somalia investigating piracy when men with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades ambushed his vehicle and took him hostage on Jan. 21, 2012, officials said.

He was held hostage for 977 days as the pirates demanded a ransom, and at one point he was transferred to a boat that had been taken over by pirates and whose slain captain was kept in a freezer, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Hassan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was Somalia’s interior minister but was also the head of the pirate group, prosecutors said.

Mohamed, a Somali army officer, was head of security and armorer for the pirates, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Moore was freed in September 2014. He has said his family raised $1.6 million for his release, The Associated Press reported when a federal jury convicted Hassan and Mohamed in February 2023.

"For nearly three years, Michael Scott Moore was held hostage in Somalia by pirates. He was beaten, chained to the floor, and threatened with assault rifles and machine guns," Williams, the U.S. attorney, said in a statement. "Hassan and Mohamed were key players in that hostage taking."

The mandatory minimum sentence is 30 years in prison.

Mohamed's attorney, Susan G. Kellman, argued in a court filing that "Mohamed’s life reflects the chaos, violence, and turmoil of his homeland." Moore said in court that Mohamed was "kind" to him and did not punch him the way his other captors did, she wrote, and Mohamed later provided Moore with photos and other information about his ordeal for a book.

Kellman said in an email Tuesday, "Sadly, this case is a prime example of just how Draconian mandatory minimum sentences are." She said they plan to appeal.

Prosecutors sought 30 years for Mohamed and 35 years for Hassan.

While prosecutors conceded that trial testimony described Mohamed as “gentle,” they wrote, “The defendants’ conduct in this case is nothing less than abhorrent.”

An attorney listed as representing Hassan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Piracy remains a threat off Somalia, although the United Nations said in a 2021 report that progress has been made and that there has been a decline in hijackings and other forms of armed robbery since 2011.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com