Somali pirate gets 30 years in prison for attacks

WASHINGTON – A Somali man who acknowledged being a modern-day pirate and attacked two ships off the coast of Somalia has been sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison.

Jama Idle Ibrahim was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court. He had previously pleaded guilty to a failed assault on the Navy's USS Ashland and an attack on a Danish ship called the CEC Future, for which he and other pirates got a $1.7 million ransom.

Under a plea agreement, Ibrahim was sentenced to 25 years in the attack on the Danish ship to run concurrently with a 30-year sentence in the Ashland case.

The case is believed to be the first time a pirate who successfully got a ransom was prosecuted in the United States.