Somali military court handed down sentences to three people, two men and one woman, who were found guilty of spying for al-Shabaab militants.
The convicted people were Hawo Osman Abdi, Awil Adan Jamac, and Hassan Ali Hassan.
Hawo Osman, a young woman whose case sparked significant debate on social media, openly confessed in court to her affiliation with the militant group. She had been working as a weapons storehouse for al-Shabaab in Mogadishu and has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Awil Aden Jama was convicted and sentenced to ten years in military prison by the military court. Additionally, Hassan Ali Hassan, who posed as a taxi driver to transport people to al-Shabaab areas, was sentenced to one year in police custody.
The military court chairman, Hassan Ali Noor Shute, announced that Mohamud Abdi Hussein had been released as the court found no evidence of wrongdoing against him.
Last August, Somali troops launched a significant offensive against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab in central Somalia. This operation involved cooperation with local clan militias and received support from the African Union (AU) forces and US air strikes.
The Islamist militant group has been waging a bloody insurgency to try to overthrow Mogadishu’s fragile, internationally backed government for more than 15 years.
