Somali police forced injured female journalist to recant complaint case

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Somali police forced injured female journalist to recant complaint case

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Mogadishu's Waberi police commissioner, Mohamed Abdukadir and his officers with the backing of Villa Somalia Communications Officer, have forced female journalist, Safiya Osman Abdulle to withdraw her case against Waber

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Safiya Osman Abdulle, Shabelle TV reporter pictured shortly after she was discharged from hospital on May 3 in Mogadishu.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Mogadishu's Waberi police commissioner, Mohamed Abdukadir and his officers with the backing of Villa Somalia Communications Officer, have forced female journalist, Safiya Osman Abdulle to withdraw her case against Waberi police and district officials following an assault that resulted the journalist to sustain head injuries on Monday May 4, colleagues and family members told Horn Observer.

Safiya, a junior reporter at Shabelle TV, was covering a protest by local displaced women who complained against diverted food aid in Waberi district when she and her cameraman were assaulted by police officers and district officials on Monday morning. The female reporter was injured after an officer hit her with metal object and the cameraman Abdukadir Ga'al beaten with slight bruises.

"I did not know when I was hit. I only saw my head and neck bleeding. I could not stop the blood. I was rushed to the hospital. They also confiscated our camera which we recorded the film of the demonstrators," Safiya told SBC TV later on Monday after she was discharged from the hospital.

The attack followed barely a day after four journalists' organizations and media associations protested on the World Press Freedom Day on Sunday May 3, against the wave of violence by the Somali security forces targeting journalists. The group: Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), Somali Media Association (SOMA), Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) and Somali Independent Media Houses Association (SIMHA) condemned the assault in a joint statement on Monday.

But two colleagues and three of Safiya's family members told Horn Observer that police officers summoned Safiya to the Waberi police station on Tuesday May 5, and forced her sign a police letter to "withdraw the case and forgive the officers who assaulted her."

"On Monday evening shortly before the Ramadan break, she was summoned. I followed her. The police commander, Mohamed Abdukadir "Mooshin" told us to sign the document. She could not decline," the journalist's colleague told Horn Observer in anonymity condition for fear of reprisals.

A family member, who also requested anonymity due to Safiya's job security, said they could not seek further redress.

The police document, reviewed by Horn Observer, clearly said that Safiya, 22, "did not mind reconciliation and to recant her case file". Both Safiya and family members interviewed said there was no any lawyer representing Safiya when she was forced to sign the recant letter inside the Waberi police station.

"It was strange that four adult males who signed the document as witnesses were not known to Safiya or the family. Certainly they were police officers," a female family member told Horn Observer.

HOW RECANT OF STATEMENT CAME

On May 4, the Director of Communications at the Somali President's Office, Mr. Abdunir Mohamed Ahmed wrote that officers who assaulted the journalists were apprehended. In a post on his Facebook page, he said "We warn against any type of interference in which defendants and victims sometimes end up in unofficial way of resolving the case". Mr. Abdinur's post (see screenshot) was eventually deleted from his timeline.

The elaborate hoax of Mr. Abdinur's message was to trick the female journalist, a victim of the police, to withdraw her case, according to Abdalle Mumin, the Secretary General of Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), who condemned the move as a deliberate execution of justice.

"It is unfortunate that the whole system is now working like a thug. When you have someone working at the Office of the President who is directing police to summon a female journalist and force to withdraw her case against the police, that is an affront to the Somalia's justice," Mr. Mumin told Horn Observer.

Abdirahman Hassan Omar, a human rights advocate in Mogadishu has noted that compelling or restraining someone by force or authority without regard to his/her wishes or desires is against the law and therefore could be repealed in anytime.

"In this case Safiya seems that she either was compelled to recant her police statement or she was not given options including to have assurances of not losing her job. Either way is it total disgrace and is against the law. Therefore she can repeal against the recant at anytime if she feels safe to do so," Omar said.

(HORN OBSERVER)