Increasing pressure prevents us from punishing terrorists: says security chief

Hiiraan Online
By Shafi’i Mohyaddin
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

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The director of Somalia’s National Security and Intelligence Agency General Bashir Mohamed Jama has complained about an increasing pressure from key government officials who are against arrested terrorists and other criminals be brought to justice.

Addressing at a 3-day national security conference which culminated in Mogadishu on Tuesday, the top intelligence chief said that due to widespread corruption and pressure from various government officials, captured terrorists cannot be punished.

“Whenever security forces arrest someone assembling a mine on streets or who has hurled a bomb at a crowd or any other criminal including murderers, key government officials immediately come to us asking for the release of the culprits, so that is the main problem which prevents us from punishing terrorists” the intelligence chief added.

He said he was not going to name the officials, but added that this culture of impunity was the biggest obstacle attributed to the continuation of insecurity in the country and in particularly in the lawless capital.

The complaints come as there have been speculations saying that Al-Shabab pays cash to ministers, lawmakers and police or military officials to get their arrested colleagues released.

Earlier, Somali president Hassan Sheik Mahmoud threatened that his government will punish every single government official found guilty of freeing or facilitating the release of arrested criminals, but no such steps have yet been made.

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