Islamist group Ak Shabaab hit a European Union armoured convoy in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier this month. REUTERS
Islamist group Ak Shabaab hit a European Union armoured convoy in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier this month. REUTERS
A terror suspect who fled Britain disguised as a woman in a burka has reportedly been killed by Al Shabaab militants in Somalia for spying.
The man, identified as Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed, was among five people shot dead in a public execution for espionage on behalf of Britain, the United States and Somalia, according to Al Shabaab officials.
Officials said that he travelled to the country to help establish ISIL but was arrested in 2015 as a suspected spy for MI6, the UK intelligence agency, and tortured while he was in prison, the Voice of America reported.
An Al Shabaab court in the town of Jilib, 350 kilometres southwest of the government-held capital Mogadishu, convicted the men on Tuesday and they were executed by firing squad in a square. Some of the men were accused of hiding homing devices to help US forces target airstrikes against the group’s leaders.
“Five of them were publicly shot to death this afternoon after they admitted espionage before the court,” Mohamed Abu Abdalla, Al Shabaab’s governor for the Jubba regions, told Reuters.
Mr Mohamed, 32, came to public attention in Britain in 2013 after he fled from a mosque in west London, disguised as a woman, while he was being monitored by the security services.