FACING JUSTICE

Alleged Somali Pirates Arraigned in Brooklyn in American Hostage Case

Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed and Abdi Yusuf Hassan are reportedly being held without bail.

Two accused Somali pirates were arraigned in a Brooklyn courtroom on Wednesday after they allegedly held an American hostage between 2012 and 2014, Courthouse News reports. Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed and Abdi Yusuf Hassan are reportedly being held without bail after prosecutors charged them with firearms charges, hostage-taking conspiracy, and threatening a U.S. national with a weapon of mass destruction. While the charging papers don't name the hostage that Mohamed and Hassan allegedly kidnapped and threatened, American journalist Michael Scott Moore previously told The New York Times he was the hostage after being kidnapped in Galkayo, Somalia in Jan. 2012. According to Moore, the pirates initially demanded $20 million for his freedom—but his mother reportedly negotiated the price down to a $1.6 million ransom payment. He was released in Sept. 2014, and Mohamed reportedly messaged Moore on Facebook two months later. Moore declined to tell the Times if the Facebook communications helped lead to Mohamed's capture by authorities.