Osman Mohamud


Osman Mohamud is a clan elder from Somaliland, a self-declared republic that is internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia.

Biography

Mohamud is known for his efforts at mediating regional conflicts, particularly among clans in northern Somalia.
On 17 November 2011, he was arrested in the United Arab Emirates, visiting his wife who resides there while returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca. The government never offered formal charges against him, prompting Amnesty International to issue an alert on his behalf; the group later speculated that UAE had arrested him at the prompting of Somaliland authorities. Mohamud was released on 5 January 2012.
Upon returning to Somaliland on 15 March, Mohamud was arrested at the airport in Hargeisa. After forty days of detention, the local government charged him with what it termed "anti-national activity of a citizen abroad”, "subversive or anti-national propaganda" and "continuing offence" in response to a comment he had made while in the UAE criticizing a trip to China by President Ahmed Mahamoud Silanyo of Somaliland. On 8 July, these charges were dismissed and replaced by a charge of "insulting a public official", of which the judge found Mohamud guilty. Mohamud was subsequently sentenced to one year in prison for defamation, according to local law based on the colonial period Italian Somaliland penal code. Amnesty International responded by declaring Mohamud a prisoner of conscience, detained "for exercising his right to freedom of expression".
On 18 July, the Somaliland government pardoned Mohamud, apparently in response to international pressure, and he returned to his home in Hargeisa.