Puntland court OKs death sentences against 3 raped 12-year-old girl

[Deeq A.]

A high court in Somalia’s northeastern regional state has upheld the death sentence of three men convicted of raping, mutilating and killing of a teenager early this year.

Abdifatah Abdirahman Warsame, Abdisala Abdirahman Warsame and Abdishakur Mohamed last May sentence death for the rape and murder of Aisha Ilyas.

The second-degree court has today announced that the ruling of the first-degree court fair and justice saying the men committed the heinous crime.

After the ruling of the court, the lawyers of defendants have confirmed that they will seek an appeal to the third-degree court which reach the final decision of the court.

Aisha was abducted from a market in Galkayo town in February.

Her body was discovered the next morning and a post-mortem found that she had been strangled to death after being gang-raped.

The atrocity led to street protests as well as an angry reaction on social media with calls for the Puntland government to take action.

The ruling is extremely significant – rape cases in Puntland are usually settled out of court, following the intervention of traditional elders who force the perpetrator and survivor to marry some cases.

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