MOGADISHU, Somalia — The security minister for northern Somalia says gunmen have killed a top Somali judge who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms.
Mohamed Said Samatar said Thursday that three men had been arrested over the killing of High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware.
Aware also had recently jailed four members of Somalia’s Islamic insurgency.
Eyewitness Mohamud Dahir says the judge was shot as he left a mosque Wednesday evening in the semiautonomous region of Puntland.
Samatar says Puntland legislator Ibrahim Ilmi Warsame also was shot dead Wednesday as he sat in a restaurant.
Targeted killings are rarer in Puntland than in war-ravaged south central Somalia.
