Islamic militiamen arrested 20 men for watching an allegedly pornographic video, said an Islamic court official and a witness on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s arrests follow several cases of the Islamic militiamen, who are the new rulers of the Somali capital, forcefully applying their strict interpretation of Islamic law. Some worry they want to remake Somalia into a nation resembling Afghanistan under the Taliban — including offering a haven to terrorists.
Twenty militiamen in a pick-up mounted with a machine-gun raided a video hall in the northern part of Mogadishu late on Tuesday and arrested the men, said Yusuf Ali, who witnessed the raid.
”They will be rehabilitated and then we will release them after they are told the disadvantages of watching such films and what Islam says about watching such films,” said Moalin Shire, an official of the Islamic court whose jurisdiction includes the video hall that was raided.
It is not clear whether the video hall was closed down as neither Shire nor Ali were able to give more details.
On July 4, hard-line Islamic militia fighters shot and killed two people who were watching a World Cup soccer broadcast in central Somalia. Two of the fighters were later arrested.
Before they took control of the Somali capital in June, some of Somalia’s Islamic radicals had attacked drug dealers, raided bars and destroyed video halls that showed risqué films. — Sapa-AP