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Jury to consider piracy in historic trial

NORFOLK, Va., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Piracy suspects will face a jury in a U.S. federal court Tuesday for the first time since the 19th century.

The trial for a group of Somali nationals charged with attacking the Navy ship Nicholas off the Horn of Africa earlier this year will be in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., The Virginian-Pilot reported.

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A jury, to be selected beginning Tuesday, will be asked to decide, for the first time in this country since 1819, whether someone is a pirate, the Norfolk newspaper said.

Just after midnight on April 1, men in a small skiff fired upon the Nicholas, on anti-piracy patrol off the Somali coast. The Nicholas, returning fire, chased down the skiff and its mother ship, capturing five Somalis.

Some of the defendants have said they were fishermen kidnapped by the real pirates, who they say got away that day.

Navy witnesses and federal agents will testify that several other Somalis confessed to being pirates, prosecutors say.

If convicted of piracy, each defendant faces mandatory life in prison, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

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