Hiiraan Online
Monday September 24, 2018
MOGADISHU (HOL) – In the wake of the grisly murder of a man who was lynched by a mob in a marriage dispute case in the Somali capital last week, the Mogadishu mayor has warned against impunity in impending criminal cases against several people arrested in connection with the cruel extrajudicial killing.
Ahmed Dowlo, an auto mechanic has been killed by the relatives angered by the marriage of their girl to his nephew deemed by the attackers as a minority person, an act decried by Somalis across the world as ‘savagery’ and ‘atrocious’.
In Somalia, perpetrators of attacks and abuses against minority communities who are often marginalized politically, economically and socially are rarely held to account or prosecuted, a factor that activists say led to more abuses they suffer at the hands of dominant clans, armed men and security forces.
However, Abdirahman Omar Osman, the mayor of Mogadishu has warned against judiciary interference allegedly by lawmakers from the defendants’ tribe, accusing them of attempting to establish a trend to entrench impunity in order to have them released before criminal charges against them are filed at courts by prosecutors.
“We are aware that politicians who also double as MPs are trying to release them on bail. We can’t accept impunity and will never accept it – No one is above the law,” Mr. Osman said at a press conference in the Somali capital Monday.
“We assure people that those who committed that heinous murder will get justice they deserve.” the mayor, flanked by the relatives of the late victim vowed angrily.
For years, Somali lawmakers have been accused of having been involved in facilitating the release of hundreds of convicted criminals from their respective tribes, something that security and judiciary authorities said were hampering their efforts to punish criminals.
According to witnesses, the angry machetes-wielding mob that refused his last desperate plea of sparing his life and killed Mr. Dowlo have later pelted his dead body with stones and blades before they doused his lifeless body in gasoline.
Meanwhile, thousands of Somalis across the world have decried the grisly murder, calling authorities to make sure that the shocking murder not to go unpunished.
Nonetheless, a recent report by Minority Rights Group highlighted widespread challenges facing minority communities including the prohibition of intermarriage in Somalia.
The report which illustrated the problem noted that in the Somali society, it is socially acceptable for a woman from a majority clan to marry across dominant clans, but it is socially unacceptable for a woman or man from a minority clan to marry someone from a majority clan.
Most of Somalia’s minorities live in the southern part of the country. In 2002, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated minority clans comprised one third of the country’s 11 million people.