MOGADISHU (Halbeeg) – Two Suspected ISIS members have appeared before Somali military court in Mogadishu on Saturday.
Islamic State has been gathering recruits in the region, although experts say the scale of its force is unclear and it remains a small player compared to the al Shabaab group.
The military prosecutors introduced charges against Mahdi Mohamud (Abu Yasin) and Mohamed Daud Warsame who were accused of being members of the ISIS group.
Abu Yasin, a dual citizen holding Russian Passport was of accused of pledging allegiance to ISIS top leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi to form ISIS splinter faction in Somalia.
According to the prosecutors, Abu Yasin who was high ranking in the group had later decided set up his own ISIS splinter after dispute sparked between Abu Yasin and the head of ISIS in Somalia, Sheikh Abdulqadir.
The other suspect is Warsame who was accused of being the head of the group’s medical department.
He was also accused of leading the group’s finance department.
The lawyers of the suspects argued that the two are innocent saying they denounced the membership of ISIS.
The case against the pair has been fixed for hearing and conclusion in the next sitting of the court.
The prosecution comes barely two days after the military court sentenced Jama’a Hussein Hassan who confessed to being a member of ISIS and admitted his role in attacks against Somali forces, to life imprisonment.
The pro-Islamic State faction in northeastern Somalia is led by Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin, a former Al-Shabaab cleric who pledged his allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2015.
In 2016, the U.S. State Department designated Mumin as a global terrorist.
Since the emergence of the IS faction in October 2015, the group has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Puntland and southern Somalia.
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