Federal prosecutors recognized for Somali pirate case

By Peter Dujardin and Ashley K. Speed
Sunday, October 19, 2014

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Four federal prosecutors were recently given Attorney General Awards for their work securing convictions in several Somali pirates' cases, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin L. Hatch, Justice Department Trial Attorney Paul G. Casey and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph E. DePadilla and Brian J. Samuels were each awarded The John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation.

That was for their prosecution of 14 sea-based Somali pirates and one land-based Somali pirate leader in the capture and murders of four Americans aboard the sailboat Quest off the coast of East Africa on Feb. 22, 2011, according to the release.

The prosecutors were recognized during a ceremony last week in Washington, D.C. Samuels is based in Newport News, working out of the federal prosecutor's office in Oyster Point.

A 2013 capital trial in Norfolk against three Somali pirates did not lead to the death sentences that prosecutors had sought — but did result in 21 life terms for each defendant. The group's on-shore negotiator — said to be the first Somalia-based pirate leader ever brought to the U.S. for trial — got 12 life terms.

The other 11 pirates pleaded guilty and were also sentenced to life behind bars.

"This prosecution demonstrates our commitment to obtaining justice for victims of piracy affecting the United States and the international community, and it sends a strong message that Somali pirates and their land-based leaders are not beyond the reach of U.S. and international law," Dana J. Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, said in the news release.

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