Somalia executes al-Shabaab media officer Hassan Hanafi Haji

Hassan Hanafi Haji was executed by a firing squad over the killing of at least five journalists

Hassan Hanafi Haji, alleged senior commander of Somalia's Shebab Islamists, looks on as his sentence is read on March 3, 2016 at the courthouse in Mogadishu, in a case brought against him for the murder of journalists in the troubled capital ( MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP/Getty Images)

A former media officer for the Somali Islamist extremist group al-Shabaab has been publicly executed by a government firing squad over the killings of at least five journalists.

Hassan Hanafi Haji, who arranged news conferences for the al-Qaeda-linked group when militants controlled the capital Mogadishu, admitted to personally killing one journalist in Somalia during his trial in March.

"Today, the court fulfills the execution of Hassan Hanafi who had killed journalists," Abdullahi Hassan, deputy judge of the court, said at the scene on Monday.

The 30-year-old, who was extradited from Kenya last year on the request of the Somali government, was masked and tied to a pole before being executed at a police academy in Mogadishu, witnesses said.

Firing squad is the only execution method used in Somalia.

“Justice served – it was his turn to taste the pain of death,” said a Somali journalist at the scene who asked to remain anonymous.

Haji admitted to joining al-Shabaab in 2008 when he worked as a journalist for a local broadcaster.

He called on Somali journalists to report according to al-Shabaab’s media rules, which included avoiding stories relating to the group’s military setbacks.

Haji later led al-Shabaab's’s media unit, inviting journalists to press conferences and giving them tours of battlefields.

Haji was one of only a few suspects prosecuted by the Somali government, despite rights groups urging authorities to do more to end the killings of journalists.

Al-Shabaab seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia law in Somalia, where it frequently attacks government targets.

The group was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011 but controls many rural areas in southern Somalia.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries for media workers.

At least 18 Somali journalists were killed last year and 59 journalists have been killed since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Additional reporting by various agencies