BRUSSELS — An alleged pirate kingpin has been arrested in a Hollywood-style sting that lured him from Somalia to Belgium to work on a fake documentary about high-seas crime.
Yet instead of signing a film contract as an expert adviser, Mohamed Abdi Hassan was arrested at the Brussels airport as soon as he landed Saturday and immediately was jailed, Belgian authorities said Monday.
Federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said Abdi Hassan was charged with hijacking the Belgian dredger ship Pompei and kidnapping its crew of nine in 2009 and participating in a criminal organization. An alleged accomplice known as Tiiceey also was arrested.
A U.N. report last year called Abdi Hassan “one of the most notorious and influential leaders” of a major Somali pirate organization that roamed the seas hijacking ships for ransom.
In 2009, Somali pirates released the Pompei’s crew after 10 weeks because the ship’s owner paid a large ransom. Belgium caught two pirates involved in the hijacking, convicted them and sentenced them to nine and 10 years in prison.
But Belgian prosecutors still were seeking the ringleaders. “Too often, these people remain beyond reach while they let others do the dirty work,” Delmulle said.
The prosecutor refused to divulge any more details on the sting.
