Justice for Samsam

16-Year-Old Girl Jailed In Grossly Unfair Espionage Trial Should Be Released And Rape Allegations Investigated

2004-12-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

http://allsomalianews.com/news1/eng/news_item.asp?NewsID=1418

African Rights Statement on Zamzam verdict: An Unfair Trial, a harsh judgement

2004-12-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

http://allsomalianews.com/news1/eng/news_item.asp?NewsID=1413

5 year prison sentence for a 16-year old student (Samsam) in Somaliland

2004-12-24T18:29:00.000-08:00

Hargeisa, 16.12.04 – In one of the most surprising legal sessions in modern history, a judge in Hargeisa sentenced a minor to a 5 year prison sentence without access to legal representation.

The minor, 16-year-old Samsam Ahmed Du’ale was held without trial since August. Charges of espionage, deception, and attempted assassination of Somaliland’s Vice President were levied against her. The judge also dismissed charges of rape, torture and unlawful imprisonment brought against Somaliland’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and police by the plaintiff, Samsam Ahmed Du’ale. The same judge handed out 3 year prison sentence for her lawyers earlier this week denying of the defendant the right to a Council. Contempt of court was the reason for the lawyers arrest. Consequently, no legal representation was availed to the minor and was left to defend herself against the said charges.

The precarious nature of the case and its legal implications would demand a seasoned solicitor and council on behalf of the plaintiff even in the most lenient of courts. Unfortunately, the 16-year-old high school student appeared in court representing herself in seeking the rescinding of the alleged espionage and attempted assassination against her by the prosecutor who demanded a life sentence.

Irregularities, peculiar conduct and scare tactics against civil society groups, and the imprisonment of human rights activists in Somaliland, who took on the case of the minor, have marred the case.

Astounding to many was the manner in which the case had been conducted. The cavalier fashion and complete disregard of the law and legal proceedings by the judge presiding over the case has angered many in the general public. Denying the minor of legal representation is viewed the most critical and injurious while coercing the plaintiff into confession in return for leniency is the most repellent.

“This really was a case of total mockery of justice. How could you have a young child stand accused, and deny her of council only to have to defend herself in a court room” said Da’ud Xussein, a teacher at one of Hargeisa high schools whom I have met shortly after learning of the 5-year sentence.

“The process showed the frailty of the legal system in Somaliland which only exits in name. The judge showed a complete lack of understanding of what the law and the legal proceedings entail in the truest sense of the word” he added.

Human rights activists, organisations for women’s rights, and women in general found the case mostly disturbing.

“It is depressing to witness the total disregard of the rights of the ordinary persons, and what is occurring in Somaliland today after all that had happened in the past. ” said Safiya Mohamed, a resident of Hargeisa’s Sh. Madar district.

“As a mother I feel disgusted with the way the case has been handled. Even if no wrong had been done to the girl [Samsam], the conduct of the Court, the Judge and the Government speaks ill of how desperately oblivious and inadequately equipped they are in trying what should have remained a minor case. Why all the secrecy. Why the absurdity and cavalier conduct” she added.

Others view the case as a litmus check for the credibility of the legal system and that of the government in Somaliland. The integrity of Somaliland’s Vice President, Ahmed Yasin has been questioned with some in Hargeisa calling for his resignation: a man whom many felt unjustly influenced the case, but unfortunately should have come to the rescue of the accused child. But as things generally are with government officials in this part of the world, it was not to be.

There are reports that Somaliland’s VP, Ahmed Yasin, a former resident of New York submitted a pardon shortly after the sentence nullifying all charges against the plaintiff. This I learnt came as result of a settlement reached between the plaintiff and the prosecutor representing the government. The plaintiff is said to have agreed NOT to press any civil charges of rape and torture against the CID and the police. The plaintiff is also required not to speak to the press, and to deny any wrongs being done onto her. The Vice President in return would pardon the plaintiff. And so should end the case.

Attempts to obtain copies of the court proceedings and rulings had been unsuccessful as these are not accessible to the general public, nor to the media.

Mohamed A Ali
Freelance Journalist
gorayocawl@yahoo.com

The Case: Samsam Ahmed Du’ale vs Somaliland

2004-11-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.somalitalk.com/editorial/samsam10.html

FORWARD TO THE PAST? FOUR LAWYERS SENTENCED TO PRISON IN SOMALILAND by Rakiya Omaar

2004-11-25T14:32:00.000-08:00

http://somaliland.org/ns.asp?ID=04112510

Human Rights Lawyers Imprisoned in Somaliland

2004-11-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

http://voanews.com/english/Africa/2004-11-25-voa35.cfm

Defence Lawyers for Samsam Ahmed Du’ale Detained

2004-11-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

http://allsomalianews.com/news1/eng/news_item.asp?NewsID=1378

Samsam’s Ordeal Continues: And the Lunacy Blights Further Afar

2004-11-25T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hargeisa, 16.10.04 – A group of human rights activist were yesterday imprisoned in Hargeisa, Somaliland for protesting against the sadistic maltreatment of Samsam A Du’ale by Somaliland’s police and Central Intelligence Department (CID).

Human rights activists gathered outside the courthouse where the hearing of the case concerning the accused was in session. Barred from the hearing, the group were later roughed up and detained for condemning the brutality in the case, and came out in support of the 15-year-old.

Only a few days ago, the heartbreaking story of Samsam Ahmed Du’ale, which was first reported in August of 2004, surfaced, tough unfortunately it now has taken a dreadful turn as local good Samaritans who rose to rescue the 15-year-old, had been detained for speaking against the atrocious nature of Somaliland’s CID’s practice of torture, sodomy and rape as an acceptable modus operandi of interrogation.

Regrettably, no one in Hargeisa dares openly speak of the case, let alone condemn practices of this kind. In Hargeisa, ordinary citizens are not only petrified of what might come their way should they breath a word, in fact many are said to be horrified by the sheer cruelty of Riyaale’s secret agents.

It is not the first time civilians from southern regions of Somalia had been badly treated, some subsequently dying from torture, in this once budding city in Northwest Somalia.

In Bosaso, Samasam’s relatives are distraught, and are uncertain as to Samsam’s future.

Mohamed A Ali

Freelance Journalist

Justice for Samsam

2004-11-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

The Tragic Story of Samsam: The Young Girl Who Went to Visit Her Uncle

- Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 22:33

Hargeisa (12 October 2004) - A court hearing deliberating the case of Samsam Ahmed Du’ale, a 15-year-old Somali girl, was in session in Hargeisa on the 10^th of October, 2004.

The prosecutor for the Government contends that the appellant, Samsam Ahmed Du’ale, planned to assassinate the Vice President of the self-declared republic of Somaliland (Northwest Somalia).

As reported early in September, Samsam, the appellant, was molested, raped, detained, and tortured in Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland. It was alleged that Samsam Ahmed Du’aale of Qardho in the outskirts of Bosaso, the commercial city of the neighbouring Puntland State of Somalia was plotting to assassinate Somaliland’s Vice President. Confined for days in chains in Hargeisa’s General Hospital where she had undergone treatment for internal bleeding and abdominal mutilation sustained during her molestation, rape and detention in the hands of Somaliland’s security forces, Samsam is believed to have sustained psychological and physical scars that shall remain with her for the rest of her life.

What was Samsam doing in Hargeisa, and why did she travel to Somaliland?

Like many of her peers in Somalia, Samsam rejoices travel to other cities in Somalia to visit relatives, distant or otherwise during holidays and graduation from high school.

Samsam, a graduate of Imam Al Nawawi High School in the academic year of 2003/2004, as confirmed by her cousin Ahmed M Du’ale, whose residence she grew up in Bosaso, travelled to Hargeisa to visit her uncle from her mother’s side, Mohamud Said Mohamed, a Deputy Minister for Somaliland’s Ministry of Sports.

Samsam departed for Hargeisa on the 16^th of August with the full knowledge of her cousin reaching Hargeisa’s main transit depot on the 17^th. On arrival, Samsam who never travelled outside Bosaso, asked a cab driver (locally known as Mark II) to take her to her uncle’s residence: the Vice President. Not clearly making the distinction between the Vice President (Madaxweyne Ku Xigeen), and the Deputy Minister (Wasiir Ku Xigeen), Samsam was driven to the Vice President’s residence where on arrival she was interrogated by the security guards. Upon informing security guards that she was from Bosaso, Samsam was stripped of her headscarf at which point she slapped the officer objecting to his infringement of her strict Islamic upbringing.

What ensued thereafter was not only wretchedly sadistic, horribly atrocious, and appallingly unacceptable to human standard and behaviour.

15-year-old Samsam was then dragged screaming by the hair with four bodyguards each on one of her limbs into their inbound shelter where Samsam was detained until the 20^th of August when she was released into the custody of the Chief Commander of the notorious Central Intelligence Department (CID). At the time, her whereabouts were known to neither her family in Bosaso, nor to her uncle in Hargeisa.

After successive, days-long, interrogative sessions, on the 24^th of August, Samsam was subjected to brutal torture with beatings and electric shocks being applied to her breasts. And on the 25^th of August Samsam endured six-hour ordeal of rape and sodomy by six officers of Somaliland’s CID. And subsequent to the persecution and rape, Samsam only 15 lost conscious by the afternoon of the 25^th. Said Foolxun and Abdi Kiin both high ranking officers of the notorious CID were named as the men in charge of her torture and rape.

Hours later, Samsam was rushed to Hargeisa’s General Hospital on stretches where Dr. Shacni, one of the GPs at hospital was horrified by the scene and state of Samsam who remained comatose until Thursday, 26^th of August. As confirmed by Hospital Doctors treating Samsam, who wish to remain anonymous, 1.2 ml of male semen were scraped from her fistula with irreparable damage inflicted upon her rectum, uterus and womb. Additionally, Samsam lost one of her nibbles during her ordeal, it has been confirmed. Furthermore, Samsam is said to have sustained psychological impairment that she no longer recognises who she is, where she is, and why she remains detained.

On the 28^th of August, Samsam was transferred over to Hargeisa Central Prison where she remained under full watch.

Upon receiving the news of her daughter’s torture, rape and imprisonment, Samsam’s mother travelled to Hargeisa where she was also detained upon arrival on the 31^st of August. She was released on bail after spending 3 days in prison for simply being Samsam’s mother, and being from Bosaso, Puntland.

The local media including the BBC Somali Section, local newspapers such as Jamhuuriya, online media outlets such as Somaliland.org all of which maintain local reporters were notified and asked to investigate Samsam’s situation, unfortunately all chose to completely snub the story.

Of the 100+ Humanitarian Organisations in Hargeisa, not a single one was moved by the maltreatment, rape, sodomy and torture of the 15-year-old young girl.

Somali, or otherwise; a kin or else, one must be touched by the inhumane nature of the story; unfortunately, humanity seems to have taken a flip for the worse in Hargeisa, Somaliland: a city that had witnessed its share of heartless deeds.

One wonders as to the role of the media and humanitarian organisations in a case so horrendous and so callous as Samsam’s.

Deeds of this kind, maltreatment of humans, torture, sodomy, rape, and infringement of humanity in the case of Samsam Ahmed Du’ale must be condemned in the strongest of terms. If left unchallenged, it is Samsam today, but shall be someone else’s sister, daughter, mother, friend, or neighbour.

Mohamed A Ali

Freelance Journalist

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