The crime of consumption of alcoholic beverages in the Somali Penal Code

Somalia is a Muslim country whose criminal law has been based on the 1930 Italian penal code to which some changes have been made to try to adapt it to the local context. One of these changes has been to introduce the crime of consumption of alcoholic beverages, a crime that anyway could be committed only by local Somali people due to their religious belief. This chapter analyzes this part of the Somali penal code trying to highlight the issues arising from the text of the law. The analysis is compared to the regime existing in the other Muslim African countries to understand similarities and differences with the Somali regulation. A conclusion is then drawn up also in view of a possible future reform of the code by the new Somali state in taking also into account the federal structure that the state has now after its re-emergence from the collapse which happened after the fall of Siyaad Barre.