Hands Off Cain
Somalia

Somalia has been without central government since 1991...

Somalia has been without central government since 1991...

2 MIN READ
Somalia has been without central government since 1991, when clans ousted dictator Siad Barre and the east African country sank into inter-clan fighting in which tens of thousands died.
After 13 years of lawlessness and as many attempts to set up a government, two years of peace talks involving the warlords in Somalia and its neighbouring countries, a transitional parliament elected Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as the country’s new president, in October 2004. However the election took place in Kenya because Mogadishu was considered too dangerous. Most of the main warlords were included in ministerial posts. The government is based in Somalia in the town of Baidoa.
Large areas of Somalia are now under the control of the Union of Islamic Courts, which consolidated its power after seizing the capital Mogadishu from the US-backed warlords in June 2006.
The jurisdiction of Shari'a courts has been extended to include criminal matters, and decisions by these courts are not open to appeal. There is an amalgamation of various legal systems and traditions. Capital punishment is retained in all existing court systems: Islamic, secular and traditional clan courts.
The self-declared Somaliland Republic is the only part of the collapsed state of Somalia to have established peace, government and a multi-party democratic system. Parliamentary elections were held in September 2005. Somaliland is still pressing for international recognition. Somaliland, whose legal system is based on the penal code of the former Somalia, retains the death penalty, although local human rights defenders are campaigning for its abolition. In recent years several people condemned to death have been executed, while others have had their death sentences commuted to payment of blood money (diya) through the application of Shari’a law.
At least 10 executions, including a minor, were carried out in 1999 and at least one in 2001. There is no official or other information, but according to Amnesty International executions have been carried out in Somalia also in 2002. Four executions were reportedly carried out in 2004.
There are no official figures, but according to Amnesty International at least one execution took place in Somalia in 2004 and one in 2005. Ten people were sentenced to death in 2005.