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Armed members of the extremist Islamic Al Shabab group walk amongst the crowd during a demonstration at the city's stadium in Mogadishu on September 15, 2010. The group has executed a man it accused of being a CIA spy. AFRICA REVIEW/FILE |
By ABDULKADIR KHALIF in Mogadishu (email the author)
Posted Monday, January 31 2011 at 17:50
Posted Monday, January 31 2011 at 17:50
A man accused of spying for America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been executed by militant Somali group Al-Shabaab.
The man identified as Mr Ahmed Ali Hussein was pronounced guilty by Al-Shabaab's Mogadishu district court judge, Sheikh Omar.
"This man was effectively caught by Al-Shabaab militias while engaged in spying,” said Sheikh Omar in front of a large crowd called to the area by militants using vehicles and loud speakers to witness the execution.
"He was found guilty of spying for the CIA," he added.
"He was found guilty of spying for the CIA," he added.
The judge was complemented by a media statement by Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein, the Al-Shabaab’s Waali (governor) in charge of Mogadishu.
"Ahmed was an undercover agent operating in Somalia, particularly spying for the CIA in areas controlled by the Islamists," said Sheikh Hussein.
"Ahmed was an undercover agent operating in Somalia, particularly spying for the CIA in areas controlled by the Islamists," said Sheikh Hussein.
"We have enough documents, especially a documentary with details of the executed man’s engagement over 16 months and the information he transmitted to the enemy,” added the Waali.
Al-Shabaab poses the biggest threat to Somalia's fragile transitional government.
In parts of southern and central Somalia, the Al-Shabaab movement executes people charged and sentenced for spying for the Somali government and for the countries that support the Transitional Federal Government, particularly for USA, Uganda and Burundi. (Read: Justice, the Al-Shabaab way).
Victims are often said to have admitted to the alleged crimes, and their punishments are carried out by masked Al-Shabaab militants.
Victims are often said to have admitted to the alleged crimes, and their punishments are carried out by masked Al-Shabaab militants.
The US suspects that Islamists believed to have been responsible for the explosions of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and other operations in eastern Africa are hiding in Somalia under the protection of Al-Shabaab.
In September 2009, American agents using helicopters attacked and killed Mr Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the alleged masterminds of the embassy bombings.
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