NAIROBI (Halbeeg News) – Al-Shabaab has executed a Somali-British for allegedly engaging in espionage against the group.
Awale Ahmed Mohamed, 32, was killed in Jilib town in Southern Somalia after Al-Shabaab court said he was a spy working for U.K. Intelligence agency.
In a statement, the group said the victim confessed that he leaked information that led to attacks against the group.
“Awale Ahmed Mohamed, (32) was accused of being a mole spying for UK spy agency known Mi6. He confessed that he was working for UK Intelligence agency,” Al-Shabaab jury said, “Thus the court sentenced him to death.”
According to sources who spoke to VOA Somali, Mr. Mohamed was detained three years ago for allegations that he was spying for British.
“He was tortured to the extreme, he couldn’t recognize his friends in the prison,” defector who knows the victim told VOA.
He was executed by firing squad along with four others in Aden-Hashi-Ayrow Square in Jilib town.
Ayrow who was one of the founders of Al-Shabaab was killed a decade ago by U.S. missile.
Under UK Surveillance
Mohamed who was living in London fled the UK in late 2013 disguising himself as a girl.
He was reportedly subject to a terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpim) notice, a type of order brought in by the UK coalition government to monitor people thought to pose a risk, but where there is a lack of evidence.
UK government faced accusations of complicity in torture and rendition in relation to his case.
In 2011, he was detained in the breakaway Somaliland, allegedly subjected to beatings and mock executions, and flown to the UK against his will.
In 2014, Mohamed and another man won an appeal against control orders that had been imposed on them.
According to UK media, Mohamed arrived in Somalia in mid-2014 where he had been fighting along Al-Shabaab fighters until arrested by the group in 2015.
It is not the first time Al-Shabaab has executed its members suspected of spying, most of them foreigners.
Last alone, Al-Shabaab executed over six foreign fighters from Kenya a d Tanzania.
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