Saturday, March 19, 2011

Justice according to al-Shabaab


A Somali teenaged boy being lashed by an al-Shabaab enforcer after being convicted of rape in Mogadishu. AFRICA REVIEW/AFP

 
A couple in Somalia was arrested and whipped in public for allegedly engaging in premarital sex in a rebel-held territory south of the capital Mogadishu.

Both Ms Hawa Isak and Mr Hassan Dhubow received 100 lashes at a public square in Sakow town, 480 km southwest of Mogadishu.

A cleric speaking on behalf of a court serving al-Shabaab - the Islamist group opposing Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government told hundreds of people who had gathered to witness the event that that the pair had premarital sex.

He also announced that the couple would be expelled from their hometown for a period of one year.

The cleric underlined that the court had been lenient to the duo, “Because this couple had not been married in the past, they are receiving lesser punishment for the sexual crime they committed,” he said.

“Married people caught in adultery or illegal sexual acts would be stoned to death,” he warned.

Found in a room

Just before the flogging took place, the district Islamic court judge had stated that the couple was found in a room together and when questioned, both admitted to have been involved in premarital sex.

Al-Shabaab controls most of the southern and central regions of Somalia and it enforces strict Sharia (Islamic laws).

Source: Africa Review

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