A Somali official has criticised the US for prosecuting¹ a man over a piracy² incident off the Horn of Africa.

美国日前起诉一名索马里男子在非洲之角犯有海盗行为，索马里某官员因此批判美国。

Muse³ was said to be the ringleader of a gang of four pirates" width="226" height="282" src="/upimg/100520/4_060124_1.jpg" />
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was said to be the ringleader of a gang of four pirates

Jamaal Cumar, a US-based Somali official, told the BBC there were "serious concerns" over jurisdiction⁴（司法权，审判权） in the case of Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse.

Mr Cumar questioned the authority of any foreign country to try Somali pirates active off East Africa.

Muse, from Somalia, faces 27 years in a US jail after admitting an attack on the Maersk Alabama in April 2009.

He was captured by the US Navy, whose sharpshooters（神枪手，狙击兵） killed three other pirates trying to escape on a lifeboat, saving the captain.

He is due to be sentenced in October.

On Wednesday, Muse's mother spoke⁵ to the Associated Press to appeal to US President Barack Obama to forgive her son, saying he was lured⁶（引诱） into piracy by older friends.

'Extrajudicial practice'

Mr Cumar told the BBC's Network Africa he had been trying to work out why the US would have any authority to try Muse's case and those of several other suspects in custody⁷ in the US.

"The Somali government's position has always been that we questioned the jurisdiction of this case," he said.

"We felt that it was an exercise in extrajudicial（法庭职权以外的） practice of the law and we asked the US to return those pirates back to Somalia."

Mr Cumar says he wants a UN-backed international tribunal（法庭，裁决） to deal with piracy cases.

Somali pirate suspects have been tried in various countries across the world, as Somalia has no functioning central government.

Legal experts have been struggling with the problem of where to try piracy cases for years.

Meanwhile, the European Union says it is trying find a regional solution by involving Somalia's neighbours.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, in the region highlighting the need to establish a functioning government in Mogadishu, said: "The solution to the sea is on the land."

Foreign forces have frequently caught pirates off Somalia, disarmed⁸（缴械） them and then put them back to sea because there is no local authority to deal with them.

Previous attempts to form an international tribunal have failed because of a lack of funding.