Five suspects in alleged gang-rape released by Mogadishu court

A court in Mogadishu Thursday released five men suspected to have been involved in alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman last week.

Banaadir Regional Court released the five among them the owner of a shop where one of the suspects arrested in Adado Wednesday worked in. The court noted the five may have been misidentified by members of the public on grounds they ‘looked alike with the Adado suspect’.

Meanwhile, one of the suspects, Mohamed Ibrahim Osman who was arrested in Adado central Somalia told the police he knew the deceased and that they were in a room in Waberi district on a fateful day.

Police nab gang-rape suspect in Adado

A video released by police documents Osman’s version of events. In the video, Osman said he had invited the deceased, Hamdi Mohamed to Bakaro market where he worked in a shop before they headed to Waberi after failing to get a hotel room.

After a while, Osman told the police, Hamdi left the room, and about an hour later he heard that someone had ‘fallen from the building’. “I was on the way to Daru Shifa hospital where Hamdi was taken when a friend told me not to go as I would be arrested as a suspect. I, therefore, fled Mogadishu to Adado.”

Earlier reports indicated the deceased was gang-raped and thrown off a six storey building. Hospital reports indicate Hamdi had allegedly been raped.

Among those in custody is the owner of the hotel in Waberi. Police now hold seven suspects.

The case continues.