Somalia: Jubbaland executes three soldiers over killings

KISMAYO, Somalia - A firing squad has executed three soldiers in Somalia's southern port city of Kismayo on Friday after a military court convicted them of committing killings, Garowe Online reports.

A crowd, including relatives and Jubbaland military court officials, saw the execution at the police academy in the coastal town, according to photographs posted on social media.

The executed soldiers were identified as Abdullahi Asad Ismail, Abdirashid Hassan Ahmed, and Aden Abdi Mumin, who had been blindfolded and tied to two poles before they were shot dead, witnesses said.

Ismail was convicted of killing of his pregnant wife, Muhibo Mohamed Guure last April in Kismayo, while Ahmed and Mumin have been found guilty of shooting dead a state soldier and a civilian respectively.

"This is to avoid killings and to safeguard our Somali people. Any soldier who kills a person will be executed likewise,” said Sheikh Mohamud Isak, the judge of Jubaland's court of appeals.

The death penalty is legal in Somalia, a war-torn country in East Africa, where the Government and regional states soldiers are often accused of acting with impunity, including killing and raping.

GAROWE ONLINE