A rushed two-hour court freed most Barre detainees while keeping six leaders jailed

Evidence

Two days later and late at night the prisoners were brought into the courtyard of the detention center and were told that it was time for them to face justice in the National Security Court. Mohamoud Geele, the chief of the National Security Court, presided over this makeshift court, and the public prosecutor was Osman Munye. Individual prisoners’ names were called, although everyone was lined up in the same area. Osman Munye read the case against each prisoner, and for most of them he declared that they were not guilty. The entire session of the court lasted no more than two hours. Before the session came to an end, Munye told the court that the government had strong cases against six of the prisoners: Egal, Aden Isaak, Abdillahi Jireh, Yassin, Ali Alio, and Omer Maalin (three Northerners and three Southerners). The judge and his assistants privately consulted on the cases and came back to the court. The judge called the name of each detainee, except the last six, and told him he was free to go. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1049

Categorization

• SEED: An article could probe how the Barre regime publicly legitimized detention via tribunals while privately releasing most prisoners — the theater of ‘National Security Court’ justice.