Thousands of people gathered Monday to witness 50 Somali men stone a woman to death after an Islamic court in the southern port of Kismayo found her guilty of adultery, witnesses said. Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow, who had been found guilty of extra-marital intercourse was buried in the ground up to her neck while the men pelted her head with rocks.
"Our sister Aisha asked the Islamic Shariah court in Kismayo to be charged and punished for the crime she committed," local Islamist leader Sheikh Hayakallah told the crowd. "She admitted in front of the court to engaging in adulterous sexual intercourse," he added. "She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Shariah law and the deserved punishment to apply."
The execution was carried in one of the city's main squares.The port of Kismayo was seized in August by a coalition of forces loyal to rebel leader Hassan Turki, and the Shebab, the country's main radical Islamist insurgent organisation. Turki is listed as a terrorist financier by Washington. The new administration formed there began implementing a strict form of Shariah (Islamic law).