Death Penalty News

MOGADISHU, Feb 16, 2026 – The Somali federal government on Monday executed two men convicted of orchestrating a series of deadly assassinations and bombings in the capital, judicial officials confirmed. The executions, carried out by a firing squad following sentences handed down by the Armed Forces Court, took place early Monday morning in Mogadishu. The two individuals were identified as Hassan Ali Iftin Buule (known as Gacmey) and Hassan Ali Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed (known by the aliases Baari, Biibaaye, and Sa’ad). Both had been found guilty of participating in terror attacks that resulted in the death and injury of numerous Somali civilians.

Mogadishu (HOL) — Puntland authorities on Tuesday executed a woman convicted of murdering a 14-year-old girl after the victim’s family chose retributive justice under Islamic law, marking a rare application of the death penalty against a woman in the semi-autonomous region. The execution was carried out in Galkacyo, a divided city in central Somalia, after courts found Hodan Mohamud guilty of killing Sabirin Saylaan Abdille, a minor who had been working as a domestic helper.  Officials said the sentence was imposed under qisas , an Islamic legal principle that allows the family of a murder victim to demand the execution of the perpetrator instead of accepting financial compensation.

Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia executed 1,380 people last year—highest in decade Amnesty International’s monitoring of the global use of the death penalty recorded 1,518 executions in 2024, an increase of 32% from 1,153 in 2023. For the second consecutive year, executing countries reached the lowest number on record. The global spike in known executions was due to a considerable rise in the numbers recorded in Iran , Iraq and Saudi Arabia , where executions increased altogether from 1,041 in 2023 to 1,380 in 2024. This constitutes approximately 91% of all known executions globally.

Somali government is working to overturn death sentences imposed on nearly 40 Somali nationals currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia as part of an effort to secure legal protections for its citizens abroad.  Somali Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Hassan Moalim announced on Friday that he had discussed the matter with the Saudi Ambassador to Somalia.  Their talks focused on ensuring Somali nationals have access to justice, as well as establishing judicial cooperation between the 2 countries.

Mogadishu (HOL) — Saudi authorities executed a Somali national convicted of drug smuggling and a Saudi citizen found guilty of murder, the Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday. The Somali national, identified as Mohamed Nur Hussein Ja'al, was arrested for attempting to smuggle hashish into Saudi Arabia. A specialized court found him guilty and sentenced him to death under tazir punishment, a discretionary ruling in Islamic law for severe crimes. After an appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, and a royal decree authorized the execution, which was carried out on Sunday in Najran, southern Saudi Arabia.

Recorded executions soared to their highest number in almost a decade in 2023 with a sharp rise across the Middle East and in Somalia, where executions increased by more than six times, Amnesty International said today as it released its annual report on the global use of the death penalty

On a beach in the Somali capital, Mogadishu stand six tall concrete posts planted in the pure white sand. The waves of the bright blue Indian Ocean break gently nearby - and often bear witness to some grim events. Every so often the security forces bring men to this place, tie them to the posts with plastic ropes, place black hoods over their heads and shoot them dead. The members of the specially trained firing squad also have their faces hidden.

Non-governmental organisations in Morocco have called on their government to intervene and prevent the execution of six Moroccans in Somalia. In a joint statement, the six bodies explained that they learned about the verdict issued by a military court in northern Somalia on 2 March, which sentenced six Moroccans to death by firing squad on charges of belonging to Daesh.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) – In a ruling delivered on Wednesday, the Banadir Regional Court in Mogadishu handed down the death penalty to a man convicted of burning his wife to death in January.  The announcement came during a brief court session attended by representatives from both families.

A military court in northern Somalia has sentenced six Moroccan nationals to death on terrorism charges, prosecutors and court officials tell VOA. A judge at the court in the town of Bossaso handed down sentences Thursday to nine suspects, including seven foreigners. “Six Moroccans, convicted of being members of Islamic State militants, will face the death penalty, Colonel Ali Ibrahim Osman, the deputy chairman of the court, told VOA Somali. He said an Ethiopian and a Somali each received 10-year jail terms, while the court found another Somali defendant not guilty.

A Christian persecution watchdog has issued a warning about the increasing severity of global persecution, revealing that 365 million Christians currently experience ongoing discrimination due to their faith. Open Doors published these findings in its annual assessment of countries where believers encounter the most extreme persecution and discrimination. Here are the top ten nations where Christians are most under threat.

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level on Thursday after a string of public desecrations of the Quran sparked angry demonstrations across Muslim countries and threats from militant groups. The Swedish Security Service, known as SÄPO, lifted the “terror threat level” one notch to “high,” the fourth of five levels, for the first time since 2016. The move reflects Swedish concerns that repeated Quran-burnings this year by a handful of anti-Islam activists have made the Scandinavian country a prime target for Islamic extremists.

Sub-Saharan African countries have seen a 67% fall in capital punishment, from 33 in 2021 to just 11 last year, and a 20% drop in death penalty sentences, from 373 to 298 over the same period, Amnesty International (AI) said in its latest report. South Sudan executed five people - down from nine in 2021 - and Somalia, which in 2021 carried out 21 executions, only had six last year. Botswana which had executed one person in 2021, didn't conduct any last year. In the whole African continent, recorded death sentences decreased by 20%, from 373 in 2021 to 298 in 2022.  Death sentences recorded in 16 countries last year, down three from 2021.  According to the report, the 20% drop in recorded death sentences was due to notable reductions in the following countries in 2022 compared to 2021:  Botswana (6 to 1); Cameroon (4 to 0); Democratic Republic of the Congo (81 to 76); Malawi (11 to 0); Mali (48 to 8); Somalia (27 to 10); Sierra Leone (23 to 0); South Sudan (10 to 4); Sudan...

The three Middle Eastern countries account for 80% of all recorded executions last year An Amnesty International annual review published on Thursday documented a rise in global state executions in 2021 with at least 579 executions known to have been carried out across 18 countries last year⁠ – an overall 20% increase from 2020⁠. The report concluded that Iran accounted for the biggest portion of the increase, executing at least 314 people – up from at least 246 in 2020 – which is the nation’s highest execution count since 2017. This was due, in part, to a marked escalation in drug-related executions. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia more than doubled its number of executions to 65 from 27 the year prior – a grim trend that continued in 2022 with the execution of 81 people in a single day in March. The two Middle Eastern countries, along with Egypt , accounted for 80% of all known executions in 2021. Significant increases from 2020 were also seen in Somalia , South Sudan and Yemen . “After th...

A number of leading LGBT organisations have called on 11 countries to end the threat of the death penalty as a punishment for queer people. ILGA Asia, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and 5 other organisations condemned the use of violence against LGBT people in a statement issued to mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), which takes place on Tuesday (17 May). In the statement, the LGBT organisations note that 70 countries around the world continue to criminalise same-sex sexual conduct, including 22 Asian countries. Islam, sharia ILGA Asia said 11 countries – Afghanistan, Brunei, Darussalam, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen – retain the death penalty for LGBT people. Eight of those countries are in Asia. According to Human Dignity Trust, the death penalty is implemented in Iran, Northern Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen, and remains a “legal possibility” i...

Save the Children has called on the Somali authorities to intervene after a military court sentenced six teenagers for participating in armed groups, four of whom received the death penalty. The teenagers were arrested in October 2020 in Galkayo, in the Mudug region of the Puntland state of Somalia, for alleged involvement in armed groups. Four of the children were 15 years old at the time of the arrest. A military court based in Galkayo, Somalia, handed down the death sentence on January 31 for four of the teenagers, aged between 16 and 18, while the other two, aged 16, were sentenced to 30 and 20 years in prison. prison, respectively. The sentence violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Somalia ratified in 2015, and which codifies Somalia’s commitments to protect children’s rights to life, survival and affords them adequate legal protection. Save the Children Country Director for Somalia Mohamud Mohamed Hassan said: “We are deeply concerned about thes...

16 January 2022 : A former Somali National Army officer was executed by firing squad on the morning of 11 January 2022 for killing a civilian in Belet Xaawo district in Gedo region. Confirming the order, the Deputy Attorney General of the Court Martial, Division 27, Major General Mohamed Abdulkadir Mohamed, said that Abdikadir Farah Dhaqane (Nune) was found guilty of killing the unarmed civilian and that he had been sentenced to death this morning. Abdikadir Farah Dhaqane (Nune), was executed for killing the late Mowlid Bashe Omar, who was formerly operating a car mechanic in Beledhawo town. Present to witness the execution were officers attached to the 27th Division of the Court Martial, relatives of both the slain soldier and the deceased civilian and members of the public.   Source:  Goobjoog News, Staff, January 16, 2022 🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contac...

Five Ugandan soldiers serving with African Union troops in Somalia have been found guilty of killing seven civilians there in August. Two of the soldiers have been sentenced to death, while three others have been given 39-year prison sentences. The three will be repatriated to Uganda to serve their sentences there. The civilians were unlawfully killed during a gun battle in Golweyn between its troops and al-Shabab militants, the AU says. The AU's Amisom force has been in Somalia for 14 years. It has been fighting the al-Shabab Islamists who retain a stronghold on parts of the country. Almost a third of Amisom's 20,000 troops are from Uganda - making it the biggest national contingent. Saturday's court martial ruling by Uganda comes a month after the AU announced it wanted to expand its military operation in Somalia, pending approval from the UN and the Somali government. "Our mission in Somalia is to degrade al-Shabab and other armed groups. In doing so, we absolutely...

'Those 10 countries where you can’t be yourself should not be allowed to compete at the Olympic Games. My mission is to try and change that' Tom Daley has called for countries that punish being gay with death to be banned from the 2024 Olympics. Britain’s Olympic diving champion said he was making it his mission to “create change” before the Paris Games in three years' time. “There were more out LGBT athletes in Tokyo than any of the previous Olympics combined, which is a great step forward,” Daley told the Attitude Awards in London. “Yet there are still 10 countries that punish being gay with death that were still allowed to compete at the Olympic Games. I think that is quite shocking to a lot of people. “I want to make it my mission, hopefully before the Paris Olympics, to make it so that the countries that criminalise and punish by death LGBT people are not allowed to compete.” According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association the deat...