Two al-Shabaab members have been executed by firing squad today for the murder of a journalist killed by a car bomb last year in Somalia.
Abdirisak Mohamed Barow et Hassan Nur Ali, who admitted being al-Shabaab members during their trial, were tied to posts and shot dead in Mogadishu.
'Both of them were found guilty of murdering journalist Hindiyo Haji Mohamed whose car was blown with explosive device,' Abdulahi Hussein Mohamed, deputy judge of the supreme military court said.National television journalist Hindiyo Haji Mohamed was killed in December when her car blew up as she returned home from a university class in Mogadishu.
Ms Mohamed's late husband also worked as a journalist with the same television station and was tragically killed in a suicide attack on a Mogadishu restaurant in 2012.'Hindiyo died at the hospital of the serious injuries she sustained, we are very sorry about her death,' Abdirahin Ise Ado, director of Radio Mogadishu, said at the time.
The military court recently rejected an appeal by the men - and increased their sentence from life imprisonment to execution.
Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists to operate, with some attacks believed to be linked to score-settling among the multiple factions in power, as well as by Al-Shabaab.
The Reporters Without Borders press freedom campaign group ranks Somalia 172nd out of 180 countries for press freedom. Mohamed was the 38th journalist killed doing his job in the country since 2010, the group says.
al-Shabaab rebels have carried out repeated attacks in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya as part of their fight to overthrow the country's internationally-backed government, as well as the African Union troops supporting it, which include Kenyan soldiers.
