Somalia: Media director jailed over interview with radical cleric

A district court in Bossaso town, the commercial capital of Somalia’s Puntland state, has sentenced a media director to six years in prison. The director of Horseed Media, an independent media house in the semi-autonomous state, Mr. Abdifatah Jama Mire, was sentenced to six years in jail on Saturday. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $500.

Mr Mire’s crime was allowing his staff to carry an interview with Sheikh Mohamed Said Atam, a radical Muslim cleric who is leading a fanatical militia that is violently opposed to the Puntland state.

 

The prosecutor equated the charge against the media boss as a war crime against the Puntland state.

 

In the interview with Horseed Media, Sheikh Atam hadclaimed victory over the forces of the state in their latest confrontation at a mountain range close to Bossasso town.

 

Public security

 

The director was denied a defence lawyer and neither were his family members permitted to witness the court proceedings.

 

The regional prosecutor accused Mr Mire of disseminating anti-government propaganda.

 

The leader of Islamist insurgency has been accused by the authority in Puntland of having links with Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group vehemently opposing the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu.

 

The detention and sentencing of Mr Mire has been condemned by independent media across Somalia.

 

On Saturday evening, the Puntland Authority announced that all media houses in the region must present their reports about the radical Islamist group of Sheikh Atam to the Ministry of Information before dissemination.

 

Puntland Minister for Information, Abdihakim Ahmed Guled, said that all reports about Sheikh Atam would be censured by the ministry.

 

He reiterated that the stringent measure is for public security.

 

-August 15, 2010 by Abdulkadir Khalif

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Source: http: www.africareview.com/News/-/825442/976930/-/ugtgvbz/-/index.html//allafrica.com/stories/201008110577.html (accessed on 16.08.10)