By: Yusuf M Hasan
Somalilandsun – “I have appointed Osman Omar Wehliye ‘Gas-Gas’ as acting Somalia Federal Government-SFG police commissioner” informed Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed in Mogadishu on Thursday.
The statement was precipitated by the sudden and mysterious death of the SFG police commissioner General Mohamed Sheikh Ismail who died at Ummah Hospital in Mogadishu a short while after he was brought in from Benadir Beach restaurant where he was spending time with friends.
The late Gen Mohamed who was appointed as top SFG law enforcer recently is reported to have been rushed to the hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest that led to his death.
After announcement of his death the CID arrested two people from recommendations made by an SFG established committee composed of five ministers led by Religious Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ridwan Hirsi Abdulle investigating circumstances that led to the demise of the police commissioner.
According to sources in Mogadishu those in custody and under questioning by the CID include a Mr. Gurey, said to be the proprietor of Benadir Beach Restaurant and Hasan Abukar Ali, deputy commissioner of Abdul-Aziz district of Mogadishu.
The two who are suspect’s curtsey of having taken the dead General to Hospital have been reported as innocent thence expected to be released soon.
Medics at the Ummah Hospital where the fateful death occurred say the General died from heart related problems but not eliminating poisoning as the cause.
Meanwhile a report by Hiraanonline indicates that Atleast 40 people, including two doctors and a restaurant owner, have been arrested in connection with the death of Somali Police Commissioner Mohamed Hassan Ismail, (October 31st)
Further reports by BARTAMAHA inform that the body of the dead police chief was flown to Nairobi the Kenyan capital where pathologists and other forensic experts are performing painstaking examinations to determine causes that led to the sudden and mysterious death of a senior Somalia government official while relaxing at a Beach restaurant in Mogadishu.
General Mohamed Sheikh Ismail who was appointed the SFG police commissioner following a reshuffle facilitated by the Al-Shabaab attack
on Villa Somalia in July was a war criminal with an international arrest warrant issued by the Canadian Government.
News of the Gen Mohamed international arrest warrant and charges of crimes against humanity thence his inclusion in a list of thirty wanted persons were divulged during a joint briefing conducted by Minister Toews, Jason Kenney, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, and Luc Portelance, president of the border agency, at the headquarters of the Canadian Border Services Agency –CBSA near Pearson International Airport in Toronto on the 18th July 2014.
“The New Somali Police Force Commissioner is a Somalian war criminal wanted by government of Canada and Toronto-area police (…) he is wanted by the government of Canada for violating human rights under the Crimes against Humanity and the War Crimes Act.” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said
According to the CBSA Mohamed Sheikh Hasan Ismail is a persona non-grata in Canada and is the subject of an active Canada-wide arrest warrant, issued pursuant to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
The controversial nature of the appointment of the War criminal as top SFG law enforcer saw then then police chief in Mogadishu General Abdihakim Dahir Saeed put police operations in abeyance after he refused to hand over to his replacement whom he, Gen A Dahir, and with the support of a large segment of prominent citizens accused of crimes against humanity thence unfit to led a law enforcement agency.
The war crimes of the late Gen Mohamed emanate in Hargeisa Somaliland where as a senior CID officer under the Siad Barre regime he was sent to quash a student’s unrest in July 1984 thus facilitating arrests and subsequent torture of hundreds some of whose whereabouts remain unknown today.
He was also responsible for attacks on Gabile Farmers in the west of Somaliland where he was charged with eliminating Khat plantations then banned by the dictatorial regime of h8s master the late Gen Mohamed Siad Barre who is responsible for the massacre of over 80,000 Somalilanders then called Northern Somalis.
“I express my condolences as the head of the state to the family of General Mohamed Hassan Ismail and the nation as whole. He was a nationalist figure who showed his commitment during his limited time as the boss of the country’s chief.” President Mohamud said in a statement released from Dubai where he is in official visit.
Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Osman Jawari said that he was shocked to hear the news of the death of Late Ismail whom he described as a statesman the country had lost. “He was a man we have all lost as a nation and May he rest in Jinnah and with the mercy of Allah’s.” the speaker added.
With the tag of having committed crimes against humanity the glowing tribute paid the deceased by none other than the SFG president and Prime minister as well Speaker of the Mogadishu Parliament makes one cringe with fright for those that the trio serves.
