Afgoye (PP News Desk) — The family of Abdikarim Haji Bilal, a veteran Somali teacher, has called on his release from a jail for “trumped-up charges”.
Abdikarim reportedly mediated two parties but one side has accused him of not paying US$ 120, 000 that the other side had failed to pay up.
“My father has been jail for eight months. He did not sign any document that obliges him to pay the money” said his son who credited with his detained father with bringing up his family on salary from teaching.
Shabelle TV reports that Abdikarm “is in jail in Lower Shabelle”. Only the Federal Government of Somalia has jails in the region.
In a Facebook post the Governor of Lower Shabelle Ibrahim Najah refuted the report that Abdikarim is in a government jail.
“We have the evidence that Abdikarim is not in government detention but that he has been detained by Al-shabaab forces surreptitiously operating in Lower Shabelle” Najah wrote. Najah did not make any reference to reports on Abdikarim detention by Al-shabaab.
Abdikarim belongs to the marginalised Jareer Weyne clan. Al-shabaab does not operate jails in Lower Shabelle.
“Shabelle TV reporter did not clarify who detained Abdikarim possibly for fear of reprisals from the proscribed group” says Fowsi Aweys, a former radio reporter in Mogadishu.
Al-shabaab adjudicates urban property ownership disputes in hideouts in the Lower Shabelle countryside.
© Puntland Post, 2020
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