Somalia: Somali legislators detained at Jigjiga town in Ethiopia

Mogadishu Monday 22 February 2010 SMC

Abdullah Farey, Sheikh Hussein Gagale Somali parliamentarians and Ugaaska a military officer were detained by the security personnel of the Somali administered region in Ethiopia in the town of Jigjiga. The Members of the parliament are two and their arrest and that of the Military officer who was accompanying them was verified for Somaliweyn by Hassan Ibrahim their colleague.

The colleague of the two detained parliamentarians added that he has made a contact with Sheikh Adan Mohammed Noor the speaker of Somali national assembly, and there are immense efforts that the two lawmakers will soon be released.
“It is very unlawful to detain parliamentarians and of course I am sure they have their diplomatic passports in fact there are several things to be respected” said Hassan Ibrahim a colleague of the two legislators speaking to Somaliweyn Website.
The detained legislators were on allocated duty to Hiran region by the Somali government according to reliable source which Somaliweyn Website has got, and on their way back to Mogadishu they intended to enter Ethiopia and use that route to come back to Mogadishu since in the areas between Hiran region in central Somalia and Mogadishu is insurgents controlled areas.