Somalia’s military tribunal sentenced two men to death on Monday after they were convicted of killing members of the country’s federal Parliament and Intelligence officers.
The verdict was announced by the Chief of the military tribunal Hassan Shuute who said the two men, Shuaib Ibrahim Mahdi and Farah Ali Abdi were found guilty of killing three members of the Parliament and two National intelligence agency officers.
He added that both were al-Shabaab’s unit of carrying out assassinations by drive-by shooting.
The two were accused of killing three members of Somali Federal Parliament in July 2014. The three members were : Saado Ali Warsame, Adan Mohamed Madeer and Mohamed Mohamoud Heyd.
Somalia uses its military court to punish members of al-Shabaab militant group which wants to overthrow the government and its soldiers who commit heavy crimes. But the court has also prosecuted civilians who have been accused of minor cases and later on went to face harsh punishments.
There was a decrease in the number of executions in Somalia 2014 compared to the previous years, Amnesty International said in a recent report.
The report, released last week, said that at least 52 people were sentenced to death, despite the Somali government’s vote in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in 2012 and 2014.
