Posted on 04/12/2002 5:55:32 PM PDT by mdittmar
A court has given death sentences to five of eight Somalis convicted of murder and accused of belonging to an armed Islamic organization, the Ethiopian News Agency reported Friday.
The eight were convicted in the deaths of 36 people in attacks in Addis Ababa and a southeastern Ethiopian city six years ago.
The Federal High Court handed down the sentences Thursday and said the accused should be hanged in a public place. The others three were given 15 to 25 years of hard labor.
The court said the sentences could be appealed.
During a five-year trial, the men were accused of entering the country illegally from neighboring Somalia and of planting explosives in two hotels in Addis Ababa and in a third in Dire Dawa, 310 miles southeast of the capital.
Members of al-Itihaad al-Islami, linked by U.S. investigators to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, launched several attacks inside Ethiopia in the mid-1990s. Ethiopian forces retaliated, pushing deep into Somalia and damaging the military arm of the fundamentalist Islamic organization by 1997.
Ooh,I like that.
Five years in court? Putting up with lawyers for that long probably qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.
Nice to see at least SOMEONE has a slower Justice System than we do.
It is reassuring to see that there is still some semblance of reason and rationality on the continent of Africa.
Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”
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