Local newspaper editor Mohamed Abdi Guled was released on bail on March 20 by a court in Hargeisa, the capital of the northern breakaway territory of Somaliland. The editor of the Hargeisa-based weekly Yool, Guled had to pay bail of 1 million Somaliland shillings (530 euros), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported.
A court in Hargeisa had sentenced Mohamed Abdi Guled to five months in prison on March 17 on charges of operating an unregistered newspaper and publishing fabricated information.
Both RSF and its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), condemned the sentence.
Also known as “Urad”, Guled was arrested on February 26 and held at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department. Local journalists said at the time they thought the reason for his arrest was a report published two days earlier about alleged plots to murder parliamentarians, opposition party leaders and traditional chiefs.
