On June 25, 2025, two uniformed police officers arrested freelancer Mukhtar Sheikh Mohammed at a cafe in the Ararso District of Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State, the journalist told CPJ in an interview. Mukhtar said the officers did not have a warrant and that they took him to the district police station, where they showed him screenshots of nine Facebook posts they alleged “spread false information” about local officials.
The officers intimidated Mukhtar into signing a statement acknowledging authorship of the Facebook posts, initially threatening him verbally and later saying that if he signed his case would be discontinued. CPJ reviewed six of these screenshots, which included criticism of the district hospital in Ararso, saying that it lacked the equipment to provide quality care to patients.
The following day, June 26, 2025, the Ararso District First Instance Court held a summary hearing that lasted less than an hour and, according to Mukhtar, proceeded without giving him time to secure counsel or mount a defense. Prosecutors accused him of publishing 11 defamatory posts and asked the court to impose a “heavy sentence” under Ethiopia’s Hate Speech and Disinformation Proclamation.
On June 27 the court convicted Mukhtar and sentenced him to two years in prison, relying chiefly on his signed statement, and immediately transferred him to a jail in Degahabour, a city about 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Arsaso, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ. Mukhtar said that he filed an appeal that same day before the Jarar Zone High Court. Hearings scheduled for July 5 and July 7 were adjourned after only one of the three judges appeared, Mukhtar said, but on July 8 the court overturned the conviction and ordered his release.
The Somali Regional State’s communications office did not reply to an emailed request for comment in August.