Norway Pressuring Somaliland Over Death Row Case

Sa’ad Jirde Hayd was on a holiday vacation in Somaliland, and at 21 o’clock on April 4 this year while he was on his way home, a man attacked him without warning, according to his testimony. “The man started punching and kicking me” he said. In the end, Saad managed to get a spray can that he had bought at Clas Ohlson in Oslo for 159 kroner. When he sprayed the perpetrator, he safely got away to his home. He suffered wounds on his knees and blows to the face because of the attack.

A few hours later at 05 o’clock, the police came to the door of his family’s home in Hargeisa, accusing him of murder and threw him in jail. Saad is now in custody in a prison funded by Norwegian and Danish authorities that is located in Hargeisa, Somaliland. A prison that was originally built to house pirates who hijacked ships in the Horn of Africa.

Ever since he was arrested on the night of April 5 this year in Hargeisa, Somaliland, Saad Jirde has denied criminal guilt. While he has been in custody in a prison for pirates, which the Norwegian authorities have helped to finance.

During the first week, the inmate was alone in a cell. “It was terribly hot and I did not get my medication. I have heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes” the 54-year-old Norwegian told the magazine Dagbladet. In recent weeks, he has shared a cell with five other people. Fortunately, my family has been able to buy me some medicine here in Hargeisa, he said when Dagbladet spoke recently to him.

In Somaliland the law stipulates that anyone who kills another person must be killed.

The defense spray bought in Oslo, according to the police in Somaliland killed a man. The spray can is important evidence for the police in the case against the 54-year-old Norwegian citizen.

Legal aid lawyer – Farid Bouras of the law firm Elden – believes that the Norwegian authorities are failing Norwegian citizens who are accused of crime abroad. His law firm has several cases where Norwegian citizens are imprisoned or accused of serious crimes in the US, Japan, Vietnam, Qatar, the Emirates, Turkey, New Zealand, Spain, France, Romania and Russia to name a few countries. What is common in all cases is that the Norwegian authorities are absent, says Bouras. He thought one of the Foreign Service’s most important tasks was to assist Norwegian citizens who got in to trouble in other countries.

For the last few days, the Norwegian media has shown a great interest in the case of Saad Jirde Hayd – a native of Somali origin but now has Norwegian citizenship – that a court in Hargeisa, Somaliland sentenced to death. Saad Jider Hayd was convicted of manslaughter, but his lawyers – both Somali and Norwegian – called the sentence harsh and unfair. They say Saad is not directly responsible for the killings, and the court’s ruling is biased.

His sons spoke to the media recently and called on the Norwegian government, particularly the Prime Minister, to intervene in their father’s case and return him to his home in Norway

On Saturday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs – Ine Eriksen Søreide – got in direct contact with President Muse Bihi Abdi in the Republic of Somaliland, where the Norwegian citizen Saad Jider was sentenced to death on Wednesday.

“On Saturday morning, I contacted the president of Somaliland and gave a clear message that the death penalty is unacceptable and must not be carried out” says Foreign Minister Søreide.

She also emphasized that the Norwegian must have access to ordinary legal proceedings.

The minister added that the president assured her that the execution of the death penalty would not happen now, and that the Norwegian citizen would have the opportunity to appeal. Norway’s ambassador to Nairobi has also been in contact with Somaliland’s foreign minister and Supreme Court justice to express the views of the Norwegian authorities. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Somaliland representative in Norway to convey the same. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has made it clear to the authorities in Somaliland what Norway thinks about the death penalty.

“I have a great understanding that this situation is difficult for both the Norwegian and his family” Søreide tells Dagbladet (The Daily Magazine) which is one of Norway’s largest newspapers and has 1,400,000.

Magazine asked what do the Norwegian authorities do next in this case where Saad Jirde, who has been a Norwegian citizen since 1995, has been sentenced to death by shooting in Somaliland?

“We will continue to raise the issue with local authorities. At the same time, Norway is cooperating with the EU and the international Red Cross committee, which is represented in Somaliland” says Søreide.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has worked diplomatically with this case since the Norwegian was arrested in April, and we have intensified our work after the verdict fell on Wednesday. We work through all relevant diplomatic channels, both here in Oslo and at our embassy in Nairobi” says Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide.

“We are very relieved and grateful that the Norwegian authorities are doing what they can to stop the execution” says Mustafa Hayd – one of the death row inmates’ seven children in Norway.

We are very pleased that the Norwegian authorities and Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide take this case seriously, says Saad Jider’s Norwegian legal assistance lawyer John Christian Elden.  Legal aid lawyer John also added that he expects the Norwegian authorities to do what they can to prevent a Norwegian from being executed, says lawyer John Christian Elden

Somaliland is a nation that embraced the democratic governance that separates the authorities of the various branches of government. Crimes that took place in Somaliland are handled by the courts in Somaliland, and the decisions of the justice system in Somaliland are not arbitrary but rather are conducted based on the rule of the law of the land that is not subject to the intervention of the President.

The death penalty is a contentious case in the world, with many European countries believing that a person should not be sentenced to death but instead to life in prison, while other countries believe that the murderer should be executed.

Somaliland is one of the countries where capital punishment is given to anyone who intentionally kills another. The Norwegian government should not impose its laws on the Somaliland Republic.

Source: part of the article content originally published in Norwegian