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Under international scrutiny, Somali jihadists delay carrying out amputation sentences

Jun 25, 2009 12:04 am By Marisol Seibold

They blamed the weather. They’re carrying out a cruel and unusual punishment with the potential for all manner of complications regardless of the heat, but they have the courtesy to pick a nice day for it: Isn’t sharia swell? An update on this story. “Show of mercy may be calculated,” by Matt Brown for The National, June 25:

NAIROBI // A brutally violent Somali militia showed this week that it has a humane side. Sort of.

Al Shabab, a hardline Islamist insurgent group that is fighting the government and wants to impose strict Islamic law on Somalia, postponed amputations on four young thieves on Tuesday, citing the weather as creating a health risk.

An Islamic court in an al Shabab-controlled area of Mogadishu found the men guilty of stealing guns and mobile phones. They were sentenced Monday to have their right hand and left foot cut off in accordance with a form of Sharia, or Islamic law.

Where did they get that idea? Qur’an 5:33 prescribes a hand and foot on opposite sides for “spreading mischief in the land,” while Qur’an 5:38 calls for the amputation of the hands of thieves.

However, the court ruled on Tuesday that the amputations could not take place because the sweltering weather would have caused the accused to bleed to death. Officials said that the sentence would still be carried out, although no new date was given.

“The sentence will be carried out later,” an al Shabab official told the Associated Press anonymously because he was not authorised to speak to the media. “It was postponed because of the hot weather and fears that the victims will bleed to death.”

But, analysts say, just because al Shabab postponed the amputations does not mean the militia has gone soft. The insurgent movement, which the United States says is linked to al Qa”eda, has fought a brutal two-year war with the government, forcing millions to flee parts of south-central Somalia. The United Nations says 160,000 have been displaced in the past two months of intense fighting.

Al Shabab and an allied Islamic militia control much of the country while the government, backed by African Union peacekeepers, clings to a few pockets of Mogadishu, the shell-shocked capital.

In areas controlled by the Islamists, violent justice is occasional but shocking to the outside world. At least two amputations have been carried out this year in the al Shabab-controlled southern city of Kismayo. The most recent one, in May, was held in a public square. The severed hand of the accused thief was held on display for the large crowd to see…

And yet movies and television other than news are verboten.

Amnesty International has called this type of punishment “cruel and degrading”. Bénédicte Goderiaux, an Africa researcher with Amnesty, said al Shabab has also been accused of kidnapping foreigners, killing journalists and shelling civilian population centres.

Prof [Owuor] Olungah said the amputations may have been postponed this week to send a message to neighbouring countries “that al Shabab is human”….

Awww.

Ms Goderiaux said that perhaps the amputations were postponed because of pressure from international human rights groups….

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