Somalia / Editor of Somaliland weekly sentenced to five months in prison

 

 

Somalia / Editor of Somaliland weekly sentenced to five months in prison

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 20, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — A court in Hargeisa, the capital of the northern breakaway territory of Somaliland, sentenced Mohamed Abdi Guled, the editor of the Hargeisa-based weekly Yool, to five months in prison on 17 March on charges of operating an unregistered newspaper and publishing fabricated information.

 

Reporters Without Borders joins its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), in condemning this sentence .Also known as “Urad”, Guled was arrested on 26 February and held at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department. Local journalists said at the time they thought the reason for his arrest was a report published two days earlier about alleged plots to murder parliamentarians, opposition party leaders and traditional chiefs.

 

 

SOURCE : Reporters without Borders (RSF)