Somali Fishermen Jailed in USA on Trumped up Piracy Charges

[Deeq A.]

In 2010 American Navy abducted Ahmed Salah, a fisherman, near Baargaal in Northeast Somalia.

Virginia (PP News Desk) — In 2010 American Navy operating under Nato attacked Somali fishermen near Baargaal coast on the Indian Ocean. One of the fishermen, Ahmed Salah, was 21 years old and is father of four children. Brit Somali TV, a YouTube channel, has managed to interview him via Zoom tonight. Salah said Americans had killed four of his friends and detained him and his friend.

“They took us to Djibouti before transferring us to the United States where we were put on trial. I was sentenced to 35 years in jail. Although the justice system used Somali interpreters we did now our rights and the criminal charges brought against us” Salah told Brit Somali TV.

Ali Sharif Ahmed, the Somali Ambassador to the United States of America, has yet to visit Somalis abducted in Somali seas, and tried and jailed in USA.

Salah expressed dismay over neglect from the Somali Embassy in Washington DC whose diplomats have not so far visited Somalis arrested by American anti-piracy Navy. “Somalia has a recognised government. In 2010 Somalia had a transitional government. The Federal Government has obligation toward its citizens abducted in Somali seas and tried in a foreign country. People living in Somalia’s coastal area suffer consequences of toxic waste dumped in the sea, but no one has ever been arrested by foreign anti-piracy force for environmental crime or illegal fishing in Somalia’s sea” Ali H. Nur, a lawyer, told Puntland Post.

Salah did not disclose names of the four Somali fishermen slain by the American Navy eleven years ago.

© Puntland Post, 2021

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