Ali Mohamed Ali, 51, acted as a negotiator for pirates who snatched Clipper Group's 7,300-dwt multi-purpose vessel CEC Future in 2008.

He has been held in a Washington DC jail for more than two and a half years after helping seal a $1.7m ransom for the ship.

US district judge Ellen Huvelle told the jurors, who began deliberations last Wednesday, to decide on two remaining charges of hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, the Guardian reported.

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