Two Somali men sentenced to 30 years for kidnapping of American journalist

Two Somali men will spend 30 years in prison for the kidnapping of an American journalist, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Tuesday.

In a press release, the attorney’s office said that U.S. Attorney Damian Williams had “announced today that ABDI YUSUF HASSAN and MOHAMED TAHLIL MOHAMED were both sentenced to 30 years in prison for hostage-taking, terrorism, and firearms offenses, in connection with the 977-day hostage-taking of an American journalist in Somalia.”

The attorney’s office said per “Complaints, Indictments, evidence at trial, and statements made in public court proceedings,” American freelance journalist Michael Scott Moore made his way “to Somalia to research piracy and the Somali economy” around early 2012.

Around that time, the attorney’s office said, he had been “driving in the vicinity of Galkayo, Somalia, when his vehicle was suddenly surrounded by a group of heavily armed men carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.” He was taken away from the vehicle, beaten and driven “away in another vehicle to a secluded area, where they held him with two Seychellois fishermen (‘Fisherman-1’ and “Fisherman-2’).”

“The fishermen had been abducted off the Somali coast in October 2011,” the attorney’s office said in their release. “Moore was held in various locations in the vicinity of Hobyo, Somalia, for approximately three months.”

From there, the department said Moore would be moved to different places, including a ship, but after “the payment of a ransom, Moore’s captors released him” around late 2014.

“For nearly three years, Michael Scott Moore was held hostage in Somalia by pirates,” Williams said in a statement in the release.

“He was beaten, chained to the floor, and threatened with assault rifles and machine guns. Hassan and Mohamed were key players in that hostage taking,” Williams added. “Both abused their positions in Somalia’s government—Hassan, as a senior security official, and Mohamed as an army officer—by keeping a U.S. citizen captive to satisfy their own greed.”

The Hill has reached out to an attorney for Hassan, as well as an attorney for Mohamed as reported by NBC News.

“Mr. Moore confirmed that Mr. Mohamed was kind to him throughout his ordeal,” Susan Kellman, an attorney for Mohamed, told The Hill in an email. “‘Gentle’ was among the words Mr. Moore used to describe Mr. Mohamed, as he asked the court to be lenient when sentencing Mr. Mohamed, who he lured into the United States with lies that profited only Mr. Moore.”

Updated at 10:33 p.m. EDT