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Somali Court Convicts Foreigners for Being Al-Shabaab Fighters

A military court in Mogadishu sentenced Darren Anthony Byrnes from the UK and Ahmad Mustakim bin Abdul Hamid from Malaysia to 15 years in jail for being members of Al-Shabaab and entering Somalia illegally.

They are the first foreign extremists in Somalia to be convicted for Al-Shabaab membership, court officials said. A lawyer for the two, Mohamed Warsame Mohamed, said the men denied being members of the militant group, saying that they were in the country to visit family and friends.

However, prosecutors said Abdul Hamid and Byrnes entered Somalia to support Al-Shabaab and "destroy and shed blood."

The convicted men's lawyer said that no witnesses supporting the Somali government's case testified in court. He said that the government relied on accounts by people who gave testimonies in absentia.

InFocus

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Judge's gavel.

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