Kismayu - Relatives of a Somali woman who was publicly stoned to death by Islamists have reacted with fury.
Asha Ibrahim Dhuhulow, 23, was stoned to death after being accused of adultery, witnesses said. It was the first such public killing by the militants for about two years.
"The stoning was totally irreligious and illogical," said Dhuhulow's sister, who asked not to be named.
"Islam does not execute a woman for adultery unless four witnesses and the man with whom she committed sex are brought forward publicly," she said.
Dhuhulow was placed in a hole up to her neck for the execution late on Monday in front of hundreds of people in a square of this southern port, which the Islamist insurgents captured in August.
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"A woman in a green veil and black mask was brought in a car as we waited to watch the merciless act of stoning," one resident, Abdullahi Aden, said.
"We were told she submitted herself to be punished, yet we could see her screaming as she was forcibly bound, legs and hands. A relative of hers ran towards her, but the Islamists opened fire and killed a child."
Stones were hurled at Dhuhulow's head, and the woman was brought out of the hole three times to see if she had died.
The Islamists last carried out public executions when they ruled Mogadishu and most of south Somalia for half of 2006. Allied Ethiopian and Somali government forces toppled them at the end of that year
The Islamists controlling this port provide security, but impose fundamentalist practices such as banning entertainment seen as anti-Islamic.
Islamist leaders at the execution said the woman had breached Islamic law. They promised to punish the guard who shot the child. - Reuters
- This article was originally published on page 8 of Cape Times on October 29, 2008
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