Bribing Somalia air traffic controllers, embattled Fahad Yasin secretly lands in Mogadishu

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Bribing Somalia air traffic controllers, embattled Fahad Yasin secretly lands in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) The embattled former Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) director, Fahad Yasin Dahir, who is facing a murder case in a Somali military court, has secretly landed at Mogadishu International Airport on Tues

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Embattled Fahad Yasin is seen at Djibouti airport on Friday before his Turkish Airline flight was re-routed to Istanbul. (PHOTO/ COURTESY).

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) The embattled former Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) director, Fahad Yasin Dahir, who is facing a murder case in a Somali military court, has secretly landed at Mogadishu International Airport on Tuesday after bribing Somali air traffic controllers and persuading to act on his favor, immigration officials, a security source and a lawmaker told the Horn Observer.

Mr. Fahad was blocked from entering the country last Friday when he boarded a Turkish Airline flight from Istanbul, Turkey to Mogadishu. His flight was re-routed while in Djibouti. A spokesman for Villa Somalia accused Djibouti's security forces of arresting Mr. Yasin. However, the Djiboutian authorities on Friday denied that they had detained the divisive former Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist.

According to a senior immigration official, the Somali Civil Aviation Authority warned all civilian flights about allowing Yasin to board their inbound flights. Both Turkish Airline and Qatar Airways have blocked Yasin since Saturday, while the Ethiopian Airlines, who reportedly sold a Istanbul-Mogadishu ticket to Yasin, received a stern warning.

"We have made it clear to all international flights that they will lose their landing permits if they bring in Fahad Yasin,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We got instructions from the government which we acted on."

The Somali government has informed the international police - InterPol - about Yasin's case. Security sources close to the Somali Prime Minister's Office described Yasin a "national security threat". They also accused him of conspiring to jeopardise the stability of the nation by "mobilising armed militias" and attempting "to sabotage the ongoing electoral processes".

How Yasin landed in Mogadishu

Immigration and security guards at Mogadishu airport — including the Turkish company Favori that operates the airport — were caught off guard after a charter plane hit into the runway 05 and taxed into the corner of the airport without notice.

"The Turkish-owned flight didn't communicate with us. We did not know when, where and how it reached the airport," said an employee at the Civil Aviation Authority known as SCAMA. "This is a big mistake. When a civilian plane is landing and taking off, it will cause a huge disaster."

Air traffic control was turned off just to conspire with Yasin's secret landing. According to an airport official in charge of checking flight records at the airport. "It seems the traffickers were bribed. They shut down the whole system because they knew this undeclared flight was coming to the airport," he added.

To stay out of public view, Yasin's plane was parked near the Hangar, right in the middle of the old military runway in the left corner of the airport where he landed. It followed when the heavily armed Dufan, a NISA unit mainly composed of Al-Shabaab defectors loyal to Yasin, picked him up from the plane and carried him in a heavily guarded bulletproof Land cruisers out of the airport.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble fired Yasin but despite accepting the dismissal, President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo continued to back Yasin. A rift between Farmajo and Roble over Yasin's fate has pulled the fragile country almost to the brink. On September 8, Farmajo even appointed Yasin as his national security adviser, a move many see as making Yasin immune to the ongoing murder case involving the death of national intelligence officer, Ikran Tahlil Farah, who went missing on June 26.

Ikran's family has called for an investigation into her disappearance and filed a lawsuit with the Office of the Attorney General of the Armed Forces implicating Fahad Yasin, among others, in her disappearance. The case is still standing in the military court, according to the family lawyers who spoke to Horn Observer on Tuesday.

Now back home, it is still unclear what Yasin will do. However, local security sources said Yasin could mobilise his armed units within the NISA to confront the US-trained NISA units of Gashan and Waran, who continue to support prime minister Roble and his NISA appointee General Bashir Mohamed Jama (Gobe).

"I don't see a way the victims can have a justice if Fahad Yasin is able to carry out his activities with impunity," said lawmaker Amina Mohamed who hails from the same clan as Ikran's.