Women sentenced to death by stoning

Two women have been sentenced to death by an Islamic court in Bosaso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, local sources told IRIN. They were taken to Bosaso Islamic court on Monday, 19 February, where they said they living together as "man and wife". The court subsequently sentenced them to death by stoning for "unnatural behaviour". The court session was a closed one, and reporters and the public were not allowed in. The sentencing has been reported in the local and international press.

Local sources said the arrangement between the two women became an issue when one went to the Puntland authorities to complain that her partner had "mistreated" her by refusing to pay for medical treatment. The women - whose names and ages were not released by the court - are being held in detention to await their fate. When and whether the death sentence will be carried out is unclear, the source said. One of the convicted women returned from north America two months ago and started living with the other woman one month ago, in the Rahiid district of Bosaso.

UN sources told IRIN that the sentence and punishment had not been officially confirmed, but that the appropriate departments were taking action. The source said that the UN was opposed to the death sentence "as a matter of principle" and that stoning to death was "inhuman treatment".