PUNTLAND (SOMALIA): MEN WHO KILLED MALTESE PORT MANAGER SENTENCED TO DEATH
August 7, 2019: The men accused of killing Maltese port manager Paul Formosa in Puntland last February were sentenced to death on 29 July 2019 by a military tribunal, Somali media report. Somalia's Garowe Online reported on 1 August that 11 men and a woman had been accused. A member of the Puntland Maritime Police Force, Constable Abdi Ali Hirsi, was among those sentenced to death for "facilitating" the assassination. A man described as the head of Al-Shabaab's intelligence wing in Mogadishu was also handed the death sentence. It was not clear if all the 11 accused had been sentenced to death but the woman was sentenced to life imprisonment. The website said 'several others' were sentenced to death in absentia. One of the Formosa’s killers was shot in the head during the attack, with the second having died in hospital from injuries sustained during the attack. Paul Formosa was shot and killed by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group in February whilst working for a Dubai government-owned port operator in the country’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.
(Sources: independent.com.mt, 01/08/2019; timesofmalta.com, 01/08/2019; hornglobe.com, 30/07/2019)
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