Somalilandsun – Authorities in Somaliland must immediately release detained lawyer and human rights defender Guleid Ahmed Jama, who is being detained on wholly baseless charges urges the Front Line Defenders, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project and Human Rights Watch
Somaliland authorities detained Guleid Ahmed Jama a prominent human rights activist on April 18, 2015 after he made statements on the radio denouncing the executions, the first in Somaliland in nearly a decade.
“Every day that the authorities keep Guleid in jail is another day of setbacks for human rights in Somaliland.” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch in a statement urging for the immediate release of the activist adding that “Human rights activists shouldn’t face prosecution for voicing their concerns,”
On the other hand the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project – EHAHRDP has termed the arrest and subsequent detention of the activist as a mockery of the notion of ‘rule of law’ in Somaliland. According to EHAHRDP’s Executive Director Hasan Shire “The charges reportedly brought against Guleid Ahmed Jama are not only baseless and absurd; they also have absolutely no basis under regional or international law”,
Another body to chip in its demand for release of Guleid is the Front Line Defenders which stated its extreme concern at the arrest and detention of Guleid Ahmed Jama, which it believes to be directly related to his human rights work.
Click to read the full statements by
Human Rights Watch
East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project and
Front Line Defenders
