Somalia: Adulterer stoned to death in Marka town

Mogadishu Saturday 7 November 2009 Shaaficiyah Media

The administration of Marka town the headquarters of lower shabelle region in southern Somalia has on late Friday afternoon stoned a man by the name Abass Hussein aged 33 to death after he has pledged guilty of forcefully raping a lady by the name Hawa Sheikh Ali.

According to the Islamic religion if a man or a woman has earlier gone into legal engagement, and he or she goes for adultery they will be killed with stones while the lower part of their body is in a hole, but if he or she has never married before they will face a penalty of 80 lashes on their bodies.

And as with the case of Abass he was a man who has earlier married there were no witnesses, but the officials of Al-Shabab in the town of Marka said that the culprit has confessed of the rape crime against him.

“Today here in front of you we are going to kill Abass who is a man who has committed rape against Hawa Sheikh Ali at Baladul-Amin location in Afgoi district in the lower shabelle region, the accused has confessed to be guilty, using a dagger frighten Hawa in order to achieve his ambitions of raping Hawa” said the magistrate who has ruled out that Abass to be stoned to death.

There were hundreds of the inhabitants of the coastal town of Marka to witness the killing of late Abass.

This will be the third case of stoning to death of people who were indicted of adultery, and the one which haunts in the brains of the Somalis is the case of a young girl of 13 years of age who was stoned to death without a genuine reason in the southern coastal town of Kismayo.