HARGEISA, Somalia, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A court in the self-declared republic of Somaliland sentenced eight people to death on Monday for killing three aid workers between 2002-2004.
Judge Abdirahman Jama Hayan also sentenced seven more people to life imprisonment for the same crimes -- the murders of a British teachers Richard and Enid Eyeington in October 2003, and a visiting Kenyan aid worker, Flora Chepkemoi, in March 2004.
The judge ordered an investigation to be reopened into the killing of award-winning Italian aid worker Annalena Tonelli in October 2003.
The suspects, who cracked jokes with their guards before sentencing was heard, grew quiet as their families entered the courthouse in Somaliland's main city, Hargeisa.
When Hayan handed down his verdict, many suspects began protesting the sentence, shouting that it was against Islamic sharia law. Others started quoting verses from the Koran.
"We should not be killed for assassinating infidels," some of the suspects shouted.
However, the judge dismissed their protests. Somaliland operates under a mixture of sharia, British and traditional laws.
"The religion is very clear. It does not encourage the assassination of innocent Muslims or non-Muslims," he said.
The group was also convicted of robbing a Somaliland businessman near the Ethiopian-Somaliland border and the attempted ambush of a World Food Programme vehicle in Hargeisa in 2002.
Somaliland, which is not recognised internationally, broke away from Somalia in 1991 after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted by clan militia.
It held the first party-based parliamentary election in September after free local elections in 2002 and a presidential poll in 2003.
Despite its relative stability compared with the rest of lawless Somalia, the killings of the aid workers raised fears it was becoming a base for terrorists.
