Arabic version: الشرطة الصومالية تعتقل وتعتدي على الصحفيين الذين يغطون قضية التعذيب
A journalist and two colleagues were detained and assaulted by Somali counter-terrorism police in Mogadishu on Friday. Mohamed Bulbul, along with Abdihafid Nor Barre and Abdishakur Mohamed Mohamud, was arrested while dining at a restaurant in the city. According to The Guardian, the journalists were beaten with pistols and taken for questioning before being released in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The arrests have been characterized as unlawful and politically motivated, coinciding with a crackdown on dissent as public frustration with the government rises. The presidential term is set to conclude on 15 May, further intensifying the political climate. Abdirahman Abdishakur, an opposition MP, criticized the government’s actions on social media, suggesting that the administration is reacting out of fear as its mandate approaches.
Bulbul’s detention appears to be linked to his reporting on Sadia Moalim Ali, a 27-year-old rickshaw driver imprisoned for her peaceful protests and activism. In a recent article, Ali detailed her allegations of torture in prison, which included being stripped and beaten. This story gained significant attention across Somali media platforms.
The journalists had reportedly faced ongoing threats prior to their arrest, which occurred just before planned protests in Mogadishu. At the police headquarters, they were warned by police chief Mahdi Omar Mumin against continuing their reporting, with threats of severe consequences if they did not comply.
The Somali Journalists Syndicate condemned the arrests, labeling them as an attack on independent journalism. AbdiKani Hamud Abokor, managing director of Somali Stream, denounced the detentions as a deliberate strategy to intimidate journalists and suppress independent reporting in Somalia. The situation comes on the heels of other arrests of journalists earlier in the week, raising concerns about press freedom in the country, which ranks 126 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index.
