Anger as Somali rapist and murderer pays 75 camels to escape death
Garowe, Somalia, Feb 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The release of a Somali man on death row for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl after he paid 75 camels undermines a landmark law to curb gender violence and promotes a culture of impunity in the east African nation, women's rights groups said. Aisha Ilyes Aden was abducted from a market in northern Puntland's Galkayo town in February last year. She had been gang-raped and strangled to death and her genitals mutilated. Three men were sentenced to death in May under a 2016 sexual offences law in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, the first in Somalia to criminalize offences such as sexual harassment and rape. Two of the three men were executed by firing squad earlier this month. The execution of the third man, named as Abdisalan Abdirahman, was delayed at the time without any official explanation. A relative of the victim confirmed that Abdirahman had been released on Feb. 20 after an agree