Man 'stoned to death for having sex with boy'

A man has been stoned to death in Somalia for a homosexual sex act, reports say.

Militant al-Shabab fighters buried a blindfolded man to his waist and threw stones at him until he died, according to resident, Yusuf Abdi.

An al-Shabab official said one of its judges sentenced the man to death because he forced a 13-year-old boy to have sex with him.

Al-Shabab enforces a conservative brand of Islam in areas it controls.

Sheikh Ibrahim Ali, a Somali religious leader in Mogadishu, said homosexuality is controversial inside Islam.

One strict reading of Islamic law, he said, is that a married man who engages in a homosexual act should be killed.