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Mogadishu military courts hands 2 ISIL members 15 year jail terms

Storyline:National News, Security
Mahad Abdi alias Abuu-Yassin and Mohamed Daud Warsame alias Dr. Raage were sentenced to 15 years behind bars for planning to set up ISIL in southern Somalia. Photo: SONNA

A military court in Mogadishu has sentenced two men found guilty of belonging to the extremist militant group ISIL in Somalia to 15 years in jail.

The court found Mahad Abdi alias Abuu-Yassin and his counterpart Mohamed Daud Warsame alias Dr. Raage guilty of working to establish a faction of the ISIL in southern Somalia. The court established that Abuu Yassin who is also a Russian passport holder was working to establish a rival faction of ISIL in southern Somalia after falling out with ISIL founder in Somalia, Abdulqadir Muumin a former UK based preacher.

Dr. Raage, the court found had been operating in Mogadishu’s Bakaro market collecting remittances from abroad to fund the faction. Raage, according to the prosecution had also been running a chemist in Bakaro.

The two, the court said were former members of the militant group Al-Shabaab before defecting to ISIL. Mumin announced the existence of ISIL in Somalia in 2014 establishing its base in Galgala mountain ranges in Puntland.

Military court judge Hassan Ali Shuute declared the two guilty of the offenses but noted they were free to appeal the verdict.

According to court documents, Abuu Yassin married a Chechen woman and together had a son named Abuu-Yassin whom the father took the nick name from. He had also operated in Syria, the documents indicate. Dr. Raage on the other had once owned a chemist in South Africa before joining Al-Shabaab.