Story Of Gay Teen Allegedly ‘Stoned To Death’ In Somalia Likely Faked

By Brody Levesque | NAIROBI, KENYA -- Reports from two LGBTQ Equality groups in Eastern Africa alleging that a gay Somalian teenager was stoned to death as a punishment for homosexuality- by members of an Al Qaeda linked Islamic rebel extremist group- may prove to be false.

According to a report published Monday by Identity Kenya, a Somali LGBT equality rights group, Somali Gay Community, in a series of posts on their Facebook page, alleged that the teen, Mohamed Ali Baashi,18, was buried in a hole up to his chest and then killed with rocks thrown at him by members of Al Shabaab on Friday, March 15, in the small village of Barawe, located roughly 50 miles Southwest of the Somalian capital city of Mogadishu. 

The Somalia group said the young man was accused of sodomy and was stoned to death by Islamic rebels while horrified villagers were forced to watch.

In the report according to Identity Kenya, Somali Gay Community claimed that a judge announced that Baashi, along with a man who had been accused of murder, had both confessed to their crimes. The alleged murderer got a more swift punishment, he was shot to death.

"This is their day of justice," the judge, told the hundreds of villagers who had been forced to attend. 

"We investigated, and this man did what Muslims shouldn't do and as a result, he will be stoned to death and the one that killed someone will be shot because homosexuality is more punishable in Islam," the judge is alleged to have said.

Identity Kenya was unable to verify the claims or the alleged stoning and efforts to reach the Somalian group have not been successful.

The Somalian group also posted graphic pictures to accompany the posts which were allegedly of the aftermath of the stoning and a group picture of the Islamic rebel court.

LGBTQ Nation has discovered that the copyrighted pictures were lifted from a series of non-related articles in other publications globally from 2008, 2009, and 2010.

The group's claims were also reported by U. S. LGBT blog sites, Towleroad, Queerty, Joe.My.God along with the Advocate magazine.