Somali Media Fraternity decry continued persecution and unlawful imprisonment towards SJS Secretary General

Friday March 17, 2023

SJS Secretary-General Abdalle Mumin and neighborhood journalists assemble for a protest to demand Mr. Mumin’s freedom in Mogadishu on 5 December 2022. | PHOTO/SJS.

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), Somali Media Association (SOMA) and Somali Mechanism for Safety of Journalists (SMSJ) decry the continued persecution towards SJS Secretary General Abdalle Ahmed Mumin and demand his unconditional open.

Mr. Mumin is held incommunicado on the Mogadishu central jail since February 23, 2023, denied to check with his household, held in an overcrowded cell and had developed allergic reactions in extra to the kidney ache and its not clear who despatched Abdalle behind bars, and its unclear when he will likely be launched.

On 13 February 2023,  Benadir regional courtroom sentenced Abdalle Ahmed Mumin to 2 months jail time period for disobeying the ministry of data’s October 8, 2022 directive. He was launched after arrival on the jail by the jail officers saying that ‘he already served the 2 months sentence, since he was arrested in October 11, 2022.”

Ten days later, on 23 February, 2023, one plain clothed intelligence officer and a uniformed police illegally detained Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) while at Jazeera Hotel in Mogadishu, where he was attending a public consultation event organized by the Senate finance committee.

On 26 February, 2023, the regional Police commander Macalin Mahdi escorted by heavily armed police stormed Mogadishu central Prison, where SJS Secretary General Abdalle Ahmed Mumin is held incommunicado.  The commander asked to meet with Abdalle and upon meeting Abdalle was ordered “He’ll be escorted to satisfy with  Judge Salah Sheikh Ibrahim generally known as Salah Dhiblawe – a decide at Somalia’s excessive courtroom, at his residence.” Abdalle rejected the order, then the police tried to take him by drive which created  a panic state of affairs within the jail and the stand off   ended virtually 9:30pm. 

Somali Media fraternity condemn the continued persecution and the unlawful arrest towards the SJS Secretary General Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, whose state of affairs is a twin of “hostage situation” and demand his fast and unconditional open.

Abdalle’s unlawful arrest and continued persecution is an assault towards all Somali media fraternity and a chilling reminder to the media fraternity, a number of whom already gone beneath self-censorship following authorities’s directive on October 8.

Somali Media fratenity demand Somalia’s global companions to publicly condemn the continued persecution and the unlawful arrest towards Abdalle Ahmed Mumin and name upon the federal government to unconditionally open him.