Amputations ordered by Somali court
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MOGADISHU, Somalia - A court run by an extremist Islamic group sentenced four Somali men yesterday to each have a hand and a leg cut off for allegedly stealing mobile phones and guns. The ruling prompted an outcry from human rights activists.
The court that handed down the sentence in Somalia’s capital is run by Al Shabab, one of the nation’s most powerful insurgent groups. The United States considers Al Shabab a terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda, a link that Al Shabab denies. The group, which controls much of Somalia, is trying to drive out the government and install a strict form of Islam.
“We have convicted them of theft, so they deserve to have their arms and legs amputated,’’ said Sheik Abdul Haq, the Al Shabab judge in the capital, Mogadishu.
Al Shabab has carried out amputations and other punishments elsewhere in Somalia, but they are rare in the capital.
Amnesty International appealed to Al Shabab not to carry out the “cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishments.’’
“These sentences were ordered by a sham Al Shabab court with no due process or guarantees of fairness,’’ said Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty International’s Africa deputy director.
No date was set for the sentences to be carried out. Al Shabab has also been known to carry out stonings and executions in public outside Mogadishu.
The sentences came as the country’s president declared a state of emergency yesterday as his fragile, UN-backed government struggled to quash a deadly Islamic insurgency.
A surge in violence in recent weeks has left about 225 people dead.
