Somali Islamist militants said they publicly stoned a man to death and shot another dead after both were accused of raping a girl in central Somalia.
A senior militant spokesman said the group picked up both men in Beledweyne, where the rape allegedly occurred. Both had belonged to pro-government forces, he said, but government denied that, saying they were “bandits”.
Ahmed Ibrahim (29) and Yusuf Ali Bajin (22) admitted at a trial by al Shabaab they raped the girl and the judge ordered one be stoned and the other shot dead, al Shabaab governor of Hiran region, Sheikh Guled Abu Nabhan, told Reuters.
He said Ibrahim was a clan militia fighter and Bajin a government soldier. That could not be independently verified.
Police Major Abdikadir Farah disputed al Shabaab’s account.
“Al Shabaab executed two bandits who killed a man and raped his wife,” he told Reuters from Beledweyne. “Neither of the two was a soldier. They were armed bandits who robbed travellers in the outskirts of Beledweyne town.”
Al Shabaab has carried out executions, floggings and single-limb amputations after summary trials in many areas it controls. Charges include theft, espionage, rape and adultery. Women and children have also been executed.
The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency has been fighting for years to drive out African Union peacekeepers supporting government. The group wants to impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law in the Horn of Africa country.
The group has been pushed out of most of Somalia’s main towns by AU peacekeepers and clan militias, but still holds swathes of the countryside in south-central Somalia. It also frequently launches bombings in Mogadishu.
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