2 men sentenced to life terms for bombing Somali airliner

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A military court in the Somali capital on Monday gave life terms to two men convicted of masterminding the bombing in February of an airliner which made an emergency landing with a gaping hole in the fuselage.

The explosion happened aboard Daallo Airlines Airbus A321 about 15 minutes after the jet, with 75 passengers, took off from Mogadishu airport.

Abdiweli Mohamed Maow, a former senior security officer at the Mogadishu airport, was convicted of preparing the laptop computer used to bomb the plane. Areys Hashi Abdi was convicted in absentia.

The attack, which was claimed by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, killed one passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, who was thought to be the suspected suicide bomber. A body believed to be Borle’s was found in a town north of Mogadishu.

Somalia’s military court also convicted eight other people, including a woman, for their roles in planning the bombing and sentenced them to between six months and four years in jail. Six other suspects were acquitted and ordered freed from custody.

Somalia faces an insurgency by al-Shabab, which has carried out deadly attacks in Somalia and neighbouring countries.