On June 22, 2025, Abdirisak Qasin Jama was summoned to the central police station in the coastal city of Berbera, and arrested, the journalist told CPJ after his release and the Somaliland Journalists Association (SOLJA) reported.
Police told Abdirisak, a reporter with Somaliland’s local Saab TV who also runs his own Facebook news page, that a court had issued an arrest warrant over his Facebook post about an alleged irregular government tender process involving a politician.
His report alleged that a member of parliament had been awarded a transportation contract in violation of Article 70 of the constitution, which bars members of the House of Elders, the upper house of parliament, from using their office for private gain.
Police held Abdirisak overnight in Berbera and then transferred him to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters in the capital Hargeisa, in handcuffs and under armed escort. He was brought before the city’s Marodi-Jeh Regional Court the same day and remanded in custody for seven days.
Abdirisak told CPJ that CID officers questioned him during his detention about his reporting and sources.
Local journalists and members of the public urged the complainant to withdraw the case, Abdirisak told CPJ.
On June 25, the parliamentarian withdrew his complaint and Abdirisak was released after he agreed to delete the Facebook post, though he declined to issue a public apology.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but has not been recognized internationally, except by Israel in December 2025.
CPJ did not receive responses to April 2026 emails to the police and Office of the Attorney General, requesting comment on several cases of journalists detained since January 2025, including Abdirisak. Similar emails to the ministry of information and the presidency returned error messages, and calls to those offices were unanswered in early May 2026.