Villa Somalia Trying to Silence Sahan Research
On Tuesday 26 October, a court in Somalia sentenced, in absentia, Sahan Research’s strategic advisor, Matt Bryden, to five years in prison on untested and spurious charges of espionage and banned Sahan Research from working in Somalia. Sahan categorically and comprehensively rejects the outcome of this farcical, politically motivated show trial, which serves only to underscore, the integrity, quality, and authenticity of our work.
Sahan stands proudly by our track record of research, analysis, and peacebuilding in Somalia and the wider region. Our reports are widely available in the public domain, and anyone interested can judge for themselves the quality of our work. Sahan’s team comprises top experts in their respective fields, who possess exceptional experience and professional networks. We have no need to break any laws to obtain information and we have never done so.
The Somali Attorney General’s principal allegation is that Sahan divulged Somali National Army (SNA) “secrets” These so-called secrets have never been made known — neither to Sahan nor to the Somali public. The prosecutor offered no discovery of evidence and Sahan was given no opportunity to rebut the charges. Moreover, since Somalia does not currently have an Official Secrets Act, what constitutes classified material is undefined in law.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the precise and substantive details of this opaque indictment were never conveyed to Sahan or any of the defendants.
Indeed, none of the accused was ever served with a formal summons: just press releases. It did not matter that none of the Defendants was present in court, nor that basic facts — including the names of the accused — were mangled, nor even that the banned company, Sahan Research (as opposed to the not-for- profit Sahan Foundation), is a UK-based consultancy that is not registered -in Somalia and has never operated there.
Admittedly, Somalia’s judiciary is still in its infancy, under-resourced, judges lack the training and basic tools to interrogate evidence rigorously and competently. While these inadequacies are understandable, they do not excuse the crudeness of the show trial to prosecute Sahan. If the judges were interested in even a remotely fair process, they could have provided Sahan’s lawyers with the case file, or even made provisions to allow the defendants to attend virtual hearings (since they were banned from entering the country).
All communications relating to the case were drip-fed to the media in a fashion that suggests the aim was less about building a robust case and more about sensationalizing the accusations against Sahan. The judicial process in Mogadishu was simply a crude prop in an act of political theatre designed to discredit Sahan and shield Villa Somalia from some of the organization’s most damning findings about corruption, neglect, incompetence, and nepotism in Somalia’s security sector.
Villa Somalia has long chafed against Sahan’s independent critical reporting and analyses. There is an expectation by Somali officials that journalists and think tanks should highlight the positive and suppress the negative. It is like how a drunkard uses a lamppost: more for support than illumination.
What Villa Somalia seeks is research and analyses to affirm and validate state policy and disseminate a “positive” narrative: a palliative form of mythmaking and soothsaying to make an ugly reality bearable. Failing that, the state’s patriotic duty is to control and police independent thought; to bring recalcitrant and wayward analysts and researchers into line. In April 2020, for example, the government threatened legal action against respected VOA journalist, Harun Maruf, for “undermining sovereignty” and “acting beyond his jurisdictions” for his hard-hitting investigative reporting.
Somalia’s outgoing president, Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo, came into office in 2017 with a promise to build a strong and assertive state and to stand up to “predatory” foreigners. After close to five years in office, he built not a strong, proud, assertive, and functional state, but a fractured and dysfunctional one. Under him, the country has progressively become authoritarian, bellicose, and reckless in foreign policy. The hyper nationalism of his ‘Nabad iyo Nolol’ (‘Peace and Life’) political brand feeds on conspiracy theory and paranoia, promoting a nativist mindset that instinctively recoils from what “foreigners” say and write about Somalia.
No wonder, then, that the prosecutor deliberately omitted any of Sahan’s respected Somali experts from his charge sheet and symbolically secured a conviction only against a high-profile foreigner.
We have serious reservations about the integrity of the judicial process as well as the precedent that it sets for the rule of law. From the outset, this trial has been heavily influenced by Villa Somalia and was predicated on politically motivated charges. This verdict is consistent with the authoritarian mindset and freedom of expression. We hope and expect that independent voices in Somalia, including think tanks, the media, and the external partners who support their work will read this as a clear signal of the federal government’s drift towards despotism and work harder than ever to protect the democratic space.
Sahan intends to appeal this decision, although it’s not clear how an appeal would proceed, since Somalia’s judicial system is a work in progress and institutionally incomplete. Sahan has repeatedly stated that it is willing to submit itself to a fair judicial process and defend itself against Villa Somalia’s trumped-up accusations. This latest travesty of justice has only served to redouble our determination to report on developments in the region without • fear or favor, to be judged on the substance and quality of our work, and to promote peace, stability, prosperity, and the rule of law.