Somalia: Policeman condemned to five-year jail term for killing a journalist

A military court in Somalia on 8th July made public its ruling of 1st November, 2018, convicting policeman Ahmed Nur of murdering Abdirisak Qasim Iman, a Somali journalist who was killed on 26th July, 2018. The court sentenced the officer to a five-year jail term. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) welcomed the ruling as an important step forward to end the impunity of crimes against journalists in Somalia.

Abdirisak Qasim Iman was shot dead on 26th July 2018. Credit: NUSOJ

The court decision was taken on 1st November 2018, but was only made public on 8th July, 2019, after the NUSOJ, with the consent of Iman’s family, pushed for its disclosure to dispel doubts about the killer's accountability for this crime.  

The ruling also ordered Ahmed Nur to pay 100 camels to Iman’s family as compensation.

Abdirisaq Qasim Iman, a 20-year old cameraman working for privately owned Somali Broadcasting Services (SBS), was shot dead on 26 th July, 2018 in the country’s capital city, Mogadishu.

Since then, NUSOJ has spearheaded the campaign to bring Iman’s killer to justice, appealing for the urgent intervention of the UN Special Rapporteurs on the protection of media workers.

 “After a long period of hard campaigning we are delighted that there will be justice for Abdirisak Qasim Iman and his family. Iman’s case has come to characterise the impunity with which some members of security forces and other powerful people conspire to indefinitely eliminate journalists,” said Omar Faruk Osman, Secretary General of NUSOJ.

For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 16

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