An al-Shabaab court in southern Somalia stoned to death 18-year-old Hasan Ahmad Ali for rape. The al-Qaeda-linked group abides by strict Sharia law in areas they control, mainly in the Lower Shabelle area in the south.
The judge convicted Ali of raping 28-year-old Fadumo Hassan Mohamud at gunpoint. Ali was forced to give the woman a goat before the court executed him.
“This shows we have the power to sentence anyone who breaks Islamic law,” said Sheikh Mohammed Abu Abdalla, the self-proclaimed governor of the area.
The radical Islamic group started a campaign in 2006 to implement Sharia law in Somalia and controlled Mogadishu from 2006 to 2011. The African Union (AU) peacekeepers managed to recapture the capital in 2011, which decreased the terrorist group’s power in the country. But the group implements Sharia law in the territories under its control. In September, al-Shabab buried 33-year-old Safiya Ahmed Jimale to her neck and stoned her to death for allegedly having four husbands.
Though the group does not legally govern the area, the ordinary citizens in the zones live in fear. People face lashes if they do not comply, and neighborhoods are forced to watch public punishments and executions. In 2010, Ismael Khalif Abdulle was a prisoner in an al-Shabaab house. The terrorists ordered the neighborhood to watch Abdulle’s punishment and announced he was a spy and bandit. One militant “cross amputated” Abdulle, meaning they cut off a hand and foot from opposite sides of his body. He and the other victims of amputation did not receive pain medication for several hours, and no one stitched their injuries for two days. But two days later, a commander arrived and told the victims their legs were cut “too low down, and needed to be shortened.” Instead of the knife, the commander used a plumber’s saw this time.
Al-Shabaab is also responsible for the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, which lasted three days. Over 67 people died, and 175 were wounded.
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