Somalia: Puntland Court hands sentence to Al Shabaab recruits

BOSSASO, Somalia Feb 19, 2015 (Garowe Online)-Puntland military court has handed prison sentences to five alleged Al Shabaab recruits during criminal hearings in the Gulf of Aden Port City of Bossaso on Wednesday, Garowe Online reports.

Court Chairman Abdifatah Haji Adan who announced the sentences unleashed on the five said that-Adan Ali Abdi, 19 Ahmed Abdi Hussein, 24 Abdi Mohamed Hussein, 19 Ahmed Adan Abdi, 18 and Ali Mohamed Nur, 19-were sentenced to two years in prison each while two defendants Ali Nur Ali, 19 and Abdi Nunow Abdi, 31 were freed after the court found them no guilty of terrorism.

Speaking in the court building, Adan went on: “We softened the sentences for them since they confessed to heading to Galgala Mountains and took part no terror offensives as of now,” he noted, referring to the largest Al Shabaab springboard in the north eastern state of Puntland.

On Sunday, the Military court handed down death penalties to four alleged Al Shabaab members, marking the first sentences to be handed out in this year, 2015.

Puntland is trying to dwindle unrelenting rampage by Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants operating from hideouts along Golis Mountain Ranges.

Bossaso, Puntland’s most populous city has become a spot for apparently coordinated terror attacks as militants more recently stepped in for night raids. 

GAROWE ONLINE