Mogadishu (Commentary) — A Puntland court earlier this week indicted Mohamed Yaqub Siyad in absentia for “spreading pro-ISIS propaganda”. The prosecutor said that “Mohamed Yaqub Siyad, whose social media alias is Yaqub Siyad, shared a video on a social media platform in which he denounced counterterrorism operations against Daesh [ aka Islamic State in Somalia] as a campaign against certain clans. He also claimed that there is no Daesh in Puntland State of Somalia.” Yaqub’s video was allegedly posted after foreign ISIS terrorists had resorted to suicide bombings targeting Puntland State soldiers.
This legal case is unprecedented in Somalia, given the fact that no promoter of pro-terrorism propaganda has ever been put on trial in absentia. Yaqub lives in a country where ISIS and its parent organisation, ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), are outlawed. Publicly expressing sympathy for ISIL and its affiliates can constitute a crime classified in the Western world as “glorifying terrorism.”
Undoubtedly, authorities in the host country will take interest in the trial against Yaqub. Other Somali social media personalities who have shown outright support for terrorist organisations could face investigations in host countries. If the video attributed to Yaqub is verified, he will face legal challenges.
In the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 2339A and § 2339B, under material support statutes, prohibit support for a terrorist organisation. In the United Kingdom, the Terrorism Act 2006 stipulates that it is a criminal offence to glorify terrorism if the goal is to encourage others to commit acts of terrorism. In Germany, Section 129a of the Criminal Code prohibits the promotion or glorification of terrorism.
Puntland State of Somalia has strong ties with several countries that host Somali refugees. In 2005, Mustaf Jama was one of the men who killed PC Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford and fled to Somalia. President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who was visiting London in 2005, told the Somali community that “the Federal Government of Somalia will arrest any fugitive who escapes to Somalia after committing a crime in the host country that kindly welcomed you due the civil war in Somalia.” Puntland State authorities detained and facilitated Jama’s extradition to the United Kingdom, where he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years. The Puntland State judiciary has sent a timely message to Somali expatriate warmongers and terrorism sympathisers.
H. A. Abukar is a retired lawyer in Mogadishu
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