Radical Islamists in Somalia cut off the right hands of two men who admitted theft as hundreds of people, including women and children, looked on, a judge said Saturday.
“The court handed down its verdict according to Islamic sharia law after the two accused admitted their guilt,” judge Abu Yusuf Sheik Hasan told journalists Saturday.
“They paid for their crimes.”
The sentence was carried out by a hooded executioner with a long knife late Friday in the small town of Balad, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Mogadishu, which is controlled by the Shebab movement, witnesses said.
Hassan Omar Mohamed, 18, and Murshid Ahmed Adan, 22, confessed to having burgled shops, stealing 45-million and two million Somali shillings ($1 350 and $60) respectively.
A witness who gave his name as Muktar described how three men restrained each amputee, one of them holding the right arm while it was cut off.
While the pair had been drugged, “It seemed really painful,” he added.
Another witness, Adan Yusuf, said, “Women and children were watching this horrible punishment and I saw a woman vomit” while it was being carried out.
The al-Shabaab movement, which controls most of central and southern Somalia and is linked to al-Qaeda, has imposed an extreme interpretation of sharia, including amputation and other corporal punishment.
In addition, music and most other forms of entertainment have been banned and a strict dress code is in force.
Somalia has been in the throes of civil war since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991. – AFP