As Lawyers and Lawmakers claim the arrest of the Human Rights Campaigner Guleid Ahmed Jama is Illegal
By: Yusuf M Hasan
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The prolonged detention without trial of Lawyer cum human rights campaigner Guleid Ahmed Jama has been termed as illegal.
According to the Somaliland Lawyers Association-SOLLA has urged the president of Somaliland Ahmed Mahmud Silanyo to immediately release the detained activist as his continued incarnation is against the laws of the land.
Guleid Ahmed Jama a practicing lawyer and the chairman of the Somaliland Human rights Center-HRC is yet to be arraigned in court almost a fortnight since his arrest on charges relating to comments casting the execution of six murder convicts during an interview with BBC Somali service.
According to the deputy chair of SOLLA lawyer Hasan Ali Hasan who called upon president Silanyo to effect immediate release, the continued detention without trial of Guleid A Jama is contrary to Somaliland laws thus an illegal confinement.
“We Somaliland lawyers urge the head of state to release our colleague thus ensure laws of the land are not only carried out but observed to the letter as well” said the SOLLA deputy chair.
Adding his voice to the call for immediate and unconditional release of the rights campaigner is Member of Parliament Mohamed Salah who stated that reasons advanced as justification of the arrest of Guleid are flimsy and without any salt.
While urging the head of state to release the detained activists as a matter The MP who is also a practicing lawyer said the opinions expressed during the BBC interview were not anti-Islamic as claimed by the state.
“The terming of anti-execution sentiments has nothing to do with religion thus the government should refrain from this propaganda meant to win citizens support for the indefinite incarnation of the innocent lawyer.
Meanwhile The HRC office in Hargeisa has confirmed that the rights campaigner is on a hunger strike in which he has vowed to pursue until he is released unconditionally or arraigned in court.
Guleid Ahmed Jama a youthful lawyer and his HRC have been a thorn in the flesh of the Silanyo administration as pertains to expedited exposure of numerous human rights violations whenever they occur in Somaliland.