(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Abdullahi Yousuf Ahmed, president of the Puntland autonomous region, RSF protested the detention of Abdishakur Yusuf, editor of the weeky newspaper “War Ogaal”. RSF asked the president to do everything in his power to assure the immediate release of the journalist, who did nothing more than exercise his right […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Abdullahi Yousuf Ahmed, president of the Puntland autonomous region, RSF protested the detention of Abdishakur Yusuf, editor of the weeky newspaper “War Ogaal”. RSF asked the president to do everything in his power to assure the immediate release of the journalist, who did nothing more than exercise his right to inform. “This is not the first time a journalist is arrested in Puntland. We already knew that journalists from this region can neither criticise their leaders nor denounce human rights violations by warlords, but we are really astonished that they cannot freely write about sexual behaviour and report on a court decision,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Menard.
According to information gathered by RSF, Yusuf was arrested on 21 February 2001 in Bosaso (in Puntland, a self-declared autonomous region in Somalia’s north-east). He was accused of making a “false declaration” after reporting that two young homosexual women were sentenced to death for “unnatural behaviour”. According to his relatives, the journalist has yet to appear in court. He suffers from poor health and has been admitted to Bosaso’s hospital.
RSF recalled that in 1999 and 2000, four journalists were detained for writing critical stories about the Puntland authorities.
