Somali man acquitted by Italian court after 17 years and awarded €3.1m killed in car bomb in Mogadishu

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: A Somali man who served close to 17 years in an Italian jail but was later acquitted for wrongful conviction was this morning killed in a car bomb explosion on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

Omar Hashi Hassan died after his car, which was supposedly fitted with an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up in Dharkinley area on the outskirts of the city.

The circumstances surrounding his killing remained unclear. Police did not yet pin any suspects in the murder of Hassan.

Hassan was acquitted by a court in Perugia, Italy on October 19, 2016, after it established that he had been wrongfully convicted. Ahmed Ali Rage, a star witness in the case told the court in 2015 that he had been coached to testify against Hassan.

Hassan was convicted in 1994 for the murder of Italian reporter Ilaria Alpi and her cameraman Milan Hrovatin on March 20, 1994, at the height of the civil war in Somalia.

Following his acquittal, an Italian court awarded him 3.1 million euros in March 2018. It was not immediately clear if Hassan had received the compensation but sources said Hassan had told friends in Mogadishu he was about to receive the funds.