UN experts call Somalia's chief justice dismissal a blatant interference
United Nations experts say the dismissal of Chief Justice Bashe Yusuf Ahmed breaches the independence of Somalia's judiciary and back the Supreme Court's ruling against it.
United Nations independent experts have condemned President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's abrupt dismissal of Somalia's Chief Justice, Bashe Yusuf Ahmed, as a "blatant interference with the independence of the judiciary." In a statement issued on 12 November, the rapporteurs on judicial independence and on human rights and counter-terrorism said the presidential decree of 4 November was a deliberate circumvention of constitutional safeguards, issued the night before the Supreme Court was to rule on extending presidential and parliamentary terms from four to five years.
No proposal was sought from the Judicial Services Commission and parliamentary approval was not obtained. Three days later a replacement chief justice was sworn in at a ceremony attended by the President, an act the experts said further eroded the rule of law. The experts also called for the immediate restoration of protection for seven judges whose personal security was withdrawn despite acknowledged threats, and for security forces to be pulled back from the Supreme Court.
On 5 November, five Supreme Court judges ruled the term extensions unlawful, declared the mandates of the President and Parliament expired and ordered elections within 90 days. The same bench found the removal of Chief Justice Ahmed unconstitutional. The government refused to comply, and the experts warned that irregular reform and a weak judiciary risk undermining Somalia's fight against Al-Shabaab.
Why it mattersSeven judges who ruled against the government have lost their personal protection and are barred from travel, leaving the court's rulings on the mandates in doubt.