WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday refused to review the use of criminal piracy law to punish Somali pirates who attack U.S. Navy vessels.
The rejections came without comment.
SCOTUSBLOG.com said the denials came in the cases of two men convicted in the first jury trial for piracy since 1819, Abdi W. Dire and Mohamed A. Said. The federal courts had expanded the reach of an anti-piracy criminal law by applying international law, the report said.
Wikipedia said Dire was convicted in Virginia and given 80 years in prison for the April 2010 attack on a U.S. Navy vessel deployed off East Africa and Somalia in anti-pirate operations.
Source UPI