Attorney General Says Arrested Citizens Cannot Be Held More 48 Hours

Somali attorney general noted that there will be no citizen stay in cell without judge.

Ahmed Ali Dahir has cautioned against holding citizens more than 48 hours without court appearance.

“The era of detaining people without has come to an end. In the law the police has the authority to make arrests, other agencies can help in information gathering, and arrested citizen cannot be held more than 48 hours, they should refer him to a judge” says Ahmed.

The attorney general distance the government from reports saying the hundreds of people are kept in 17 government jails without judge.

“There is no such thing of mass arrests in the book of law” said the Attorney general pointing out that the person can only be arrested with a very genuine case if the country is not under emergency law “We operate like we are under emergency law without the emergency degree” he adds.

Somalia’s national intelligence agency, NISA has been accused of routinely carried out mass security sweeps, despite having no legal mandate to arrest and detain suspects and occasionally holding detainees for prolonged periods without judicial review and mistreated suspects during interrogations.