Editor of Somaliland’s Yool paper sentenced to 5 months
Mr Curad
Hargeisa (Somaliland Globe) — The Hargeisa Regional Court has sentenced Mr Mohamed Abdi Guled (Curad), the editor of Yool daily paper, to 5 months in jail for running “an unregistered” newspaper and printing what the prosecutor called a “fabricated information”, a politically loaded term that often refers to publicizing information that is critical of government officials.
The case against Mr Curad rests on an article printed on Yool under the title “The truth about planned covert assassinations against national leaders“.
Mr Curad, has been in custody for more than 3 weeks at the CID prison in Hargeisa. Attempts to release him on bail failed after the prosecution objected. In Somaliland it is extremely unlikely for a judge to grant bail without the government prosecution also agreeing to it.
Despite the constitutional guarantees, the press freedom in Somaliland has been severely eroded by the numerous arrests of reporters on flimsy cases.
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