Somalia: Ex-soldier sentenced to death for facilitating Al-Shabaab attacks
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Staff reporter GAROWE ONLINE
- Posted On 15-12-2022, 04:33PM
MOGADISHU, Somalia - A former member of the Somali National Army [SNA] has been slapped with a death sentence after being found culpable of facilitating Al-Shabaab attacks in Mogadishu, in what could trigger serious doubts about the competence of those entrusted with the security.
A military court convicted Mohamed Abdulle Nur Abkow who served in the Somali National Army for over a decade for organizing attacks on behalf of Al-Shabaab, which have left hundreds of people dead across Somalia. His conviction is one among many done by the court.
Court documents show that Mohamed Abdulle Nur Abkow was one of the people who organized and executed the Aden Adde International Airport attack in March this year which left dozens of people dead. A number of foreign nationals working for various diplomatic missions died.
The court further unearthed evidence that Abkow was using his name and Identity Card to help Al-Shabaab VBIEDs pass through, a clear violation of the code of conduct for military officials. He's said to have used this tactic for a couple of years before he was dragged to court to answer the charges.
He's not the first military officer to be convicted of Al-Shabaab-related crimes in the Horn of Africa country. The military courts in Somalia are viewed as the most efficient avenues to prosecute terrorism cases with the country still struggling with a drained public prosecution system.
Elsewhere, the Somali National Army has for the first time displayed a recovered Al-Shabaab Villa in the newly liberated Adan Yabal town which compromises a courtroom, taxation center, and other offices that the militants have been using since 2016 when they seized the town.
The report says a bomb-making manual was found on the premises during the search which was conducted by the military in the company of the town's new mayor Mohamud Sheikh Hassan. The government is striving to install civilian leadership in all liberated towns within the country.
GAROWE ONLINE
