Somali Islamists said on Thursday they had arrested two Muslim militiamen accused of shooting dead two people this week during a protest in central Somalia against a ban on watching the World Cup.
The pair is to be tried, possibly for murder, under Sharia law by an Islamic court in Dhusomareb town in Somalia’s central Galgadud district, north of Mogadishu, according to two senior clerics involved in the case.
”The Islamic courts ordered that the gunmen be arrested for killing unarmed civilians,” said one. ”Investigations are underway and if murder is proved they will be punished according to Sharia.
”That means they will be executed,” the cleric told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.
The hard-line supreme leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, confirmed the arrests and said discussions about their prosecution were under way.
”We are sorry for the incident, but we are investigating,” he told Somalia’s HornAfrik radio from Galgadud, his home region north of Mogadishu. ”I am talking with local elders to see what punishment should be taken.”
The pair were detained on Wednesday, just hours after witnesses said Islamic gunmen opened fire on a crowd of mainly young demonstrators protesting a ban on watching the World Cup at a cinema hall in Dhusomareb late on Tuesday.
The cinema owner and a young girl were killed in the shooting, which took place after the militia shot into the air to break up the screening of the World Cup semifinal match between Germany and Italy.
The Islamists, who seized Mogadishu and several provincial towns last month from United States-backed warlords have begun enforcing strict Sharia law in some areas under their control, including bans on cinemas and television.
World Cup broadcasts, in particular, have drawn their ire with clerics arguing that some elements, notably advertisements for alcoholic beverages, are evil.
At least two people were killed in the capital last month during a protest similar to Tuesday’s in Galgadud, but after that incident the ban was partially repealed in Mogadishu.
Somalia’s Islamic courts first began to close down cinemas showing Hollywood and Bollywood films last year as their influence expanded, arguing that the presentations contravened their strict interpretation of Islam. — Sapa-AFP