NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Five Somali men were convicted of piracy Wednesday for the 2010 attack on the USS Ashland off the coast of Africa.
A sixth man who claimed to be the group's leader had already pleaded guilty to lesser charges and testified that they thought they were attacking a merchant ship when one of his crew members fired an AK-47 at the Ashland.
Prosecutors said the men intended to board the ship and hold it for ransom, a common practice in Somalia. But before that could happen, the Virginia-based amphibious dock landing ship returned fire with a 25mm cannon, killing one man and setting the pirates' skiff on fire.
Defense attorneys had argued to the federal jury that the men were returning to Somalia after ferrying refugees to Yemen when they came across the ship in the Gulf of Aden. They said an AK-47 was fired in the Ashland's direction to get its attention so it could help them after they were wandering around lost at sea.