Somali stoning victim said to be 13

KISMAYO, Somalia, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A young Somali woman stoned to death by a crowd was 13 years old, not 23 as reported by local news media, human rights activists say.

Some 50 men took part in the stoning of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulowat at a football stadium in the southern port city of Kismayo, Somalia, which this year was captured by militias loyal to the Islamic fundamentalist rebel group al-Shabab, the BBC said Tuesday.

Local media reported that Duhulowat was an adult woman who had confessed adultery to a Islamic Sharia law court and had accepted her punishment. But the human rights group Amnesty International says it learned she was only 13, which would make stoning illegal under Sharia law, and further, that her father claimed she had been raped by three men.

Rather than accepting her punishment, witnesses speaking under the condition of anonymity told the BBC the girl was weeping and pleaded with officials to let her live. She was buried up to her neck and 50 men threw stones at her, witnesses said.