International press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Monday (May 19th) called on the government of the Somaliland region to drop charges against Haatuf newspaper editors Yusuf Abdi Gabobe and Ahmed Ali Egeh, calling their trial a “sham”.
“We call on the authorities to drop all the charges against Gabobe and Egeh and to end this sham trial, which reflects a poorly concealed desire to intimidate Somaliland’s media,” said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk.
The government’s prosecution of Gabobe, founder and editor of Haatuf, and Egeh, editor of the Somali-language version of the paper, is in violation of Somaliland’s 2004 press law, according to Kahn-Sriber. It is also reliant on the testimony of two government officials who were named in the article that led to Haatuf’s closure, which represents a clear conflict of interest, she said.
Haatuf has been closed since April 7th after publishing a series of reports on corruption implicating Somaliland regional Minister of Energy and Minerals Hussein Abdi Dualeh and the son-in-law of President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, Bashe Awil Haji Omar.
Gabobe and Egeh were arrested May 10th and charged with making false accusations, publishing subversive propaganda, publishing false or tendentious information liable to endanger public order, and insulting officials.
Source Allafrika
