​Somalia: Puntland government releases prominent elder accused of ties to Al Shabaab

BOSASO, Puntland- The state authority of semi-autonomous region of Puntland has on Saturday released a prominent elder from the jail, accused of having links to Al Qaida-affiliated group Al Shabaab, Garowe Online reports.

Abdulqadir Ibrahim “Harago” a prominent clan elder in Bari region was under custody in the past two weeks but released after he was granted a pardon from Puntland President Abdiwali Mohamed Ali “Gaas” before his departure on last Friday.

However, this is not the first time that President Ali has pardoned people who were accused of ties to militant groups. Last year, UN monitoring group has slammed Puntland President for implementing catch and release policy accusing his administration of releasing suspected militants from jails on presidential pardon.

The arrest of Harago came after he visited inmates in Bosaso jail accused of carrying out assassinations. During an interview with the media, Harago stated that Puntland government has tortured the suspects to obtain false confession to crimes that they are allegedly accused of committing.

On the other hand, in a special interview with VOA, President Ali stated that he believed that clan elder Harago is a member of the terror group Al Shabaab and his personal visit to the inmates in jail is intended to send a message to the group.

Harago who claimed to be the spokesman for the clan elders in Bari region, is a well-known for his involvement in Bari region's politics and was part of the campaign calling for political change during the past Puntland presidential election in January 2014.

Bosaso, the regional capital of Bari region has witnessed in the past months surge of assassination attacks against government officials and civilian targets amid frequent protest of military and security forces demanding overdue salaries for over a year from Puntland government.

GAROWEONLINE