SOMALIA

two women were sentenced to death because they were found to be living in the same residence as husband and wife, they were thus found guilty of “unnatural” behaviour according to Sharia law, which the Somalian Penal Code bases itself on. The news comes from the Somalian daily newspaper Qaran, published in Mogadishu. The sentencing took place in Bossasso, in the region that proclaimed its own independence from Puntland in north-eastern Somalia.One of the women had been living in the United States and upon returnng home she began living with the other. Living together was not easy as one of the women had reported to the police to have been beaten by her companion, adding that she did not want to pay for the medical treatement she needed. She told the authorities the details of her relationship. The two women were then immediately arrested and put on trial. In August 1998 Puntland had stated unanimously its independence from the rest of Somalia, which had been divided in 1991 into various regions under the control of rival militias. Puntland has its own institutions and judicial administration, it rarely imposes capital punishment; death sentences are executed by firing squad.