SOMALIA. SOMALILAND CONDEMNS TWO TO DEATH FOR SLAIN AID WORKERS

April 19, 2007: the Supreme Court in the self-declared republic of Somaliland has sentenced two men to be executed by firing squad for the murder of four foreign aid workers between 2003-2004, court officials said.
Italian aid worker Annalena Tonelli was shot dead in 2003, British teachers Richard and Enid Eyeington were killed in October 2003, and Kenyan aid worker Flora Chepkemoi was gunned down outside the capital Hargeisa in March 2004.
Jama Abdi Ismail and Mohammed Ali Esse, both from Somaliland, were part of a group of eight men first sentenced to die in November 2005 by a lower court. But the Supreme Court, sitting in Berbera, without explanation reduced the other accused’s sentences to life imprisonment. "This will be the final verdict and there will be no appeal," said Supreme Court chairman Mohammed Esse Omane. Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but the world has so far withheld recognition. (Sources: Reuters, 19/04/2007)