Mohamed Abdi Hassan

Mohamed Abdi Hassan محمد عبدي حسن
Born	Harardhere, Somalia
Nationality	Somali
Occupation	entrepreneur, pirate leader
Children	Abdiqaadir

Mohamed Abdi Hassan (Somali: Maxamed Cabdi Xasan, Arabic: محمد عبدي حسن‎‎), commonly known as Afweyne, is a Somali entrepreneur and pirate leader. He was lured to Belgium in 2013, and sentenced in Bruges in March 2016 to twenty years' imprisonment for leading the 2009 hijacking of the Belgian dredger Pompei.

Nicknamed "Afweyne" ("Big Mouth" in Somali), Hassan is from Harardhere, a port town in the south-central Galmudug region of Somalia.

He hails from the Habar Gidir sub-clan of the Hawiye.

Hassan has a son, Abdiqaadir, who works closely with him in his business operations.

Hassan began his career in piracy in 2005. According to Belgian authorities, he made millions in illegal activities over the next eight years.

The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea linked Hassan with over seven vessel hijackings in 2009. Secondary reports alleged that he was also involved in the capture of dozens of other ships, among which were the MV Sirius Star supertanker and the Ukrainian tank-laden MV Faina in 2008. At his height, Hassan enjoyed a cult following. The late Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who hailed him as a national hero, also invited Hassan to a 2009 four-day celebration in Libya.

In 2010 Al-Shabaab militants began encroaching on Hassan's pirate strongholds of Harardhere and Hobyo. He subsequently entered into a formal agreement with the insurgents, agreeing to hand over a US$100,000 tax per hijacking ransom in return for no interference in his operations. Hassan indicated in an interview with the Spanish daily newspaper ABC that there was "no political relationship, only one based on money", adding that he was paying 5 percent of his ransom profits as a security fee. He later denied all involvement with the militant group. However, Hassan's son asserted in April 2012 that the partnership with the outfit was still extant.

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Wikipedia