Wednesday, August 07, 2013
A Somaliland regional court Sunday (August
4th) sentenced 21 men found guilty of gang-raping two Hargeisa women.
Twenty of the men were sentenced to ten years in jail while one man was
sentenced to five years, head of Marodi Jeh Regional Court Faisal
Abdullahi Ismail said.
The men were convicted of gang-raping two women on the night of July
25th on their way from taraweeh prayers in the New Hargeisa neighborhood
of Gaan Libah district. "We have a lot of evidence and witnesses
showing that [these men] committed the crime," Ismail said as he
announced the sentence.
This is the most reasonable sentence issued by Somaliland courts
against perpetrators of rape, said Ahmed Yusuf Hussein, head of
Hargeisa-based Horn Human Rights Umbrella. "Human rights advocates in
Somaliland have welcomed this sentence, which can become a solution to
halting the increased rape," Hussein told Sabahi. "To find a solution,
we are calling on the houses of parliament to create a strong law to
combat rape offences."
At least six gang-rape cases in Hargeisa have been registered in the last two weeks, Hussein said.