UN experts brand Somalia president’s removal of chief justice a direct assault on judicial independence

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – In language of unusual severity, 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,” and have placed the full weight of their authority behind the Supreme Court’s subsequent ruling that both the dismissal and the extension of presidential and parliamentary terms were unconstitutional .

The statement, issued on 12 November by Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, describes the presidential decree of 4 November – issued the night before the Supreme Court was to pronounce on the legality of extending the mandates of the President and Parliament from four to five years – as a deliberate circumvention of constitutional safeguards. No proposal was sought from the Judicial Services Commission, nor was parliamentary approval obtained.

Three days later, a replacement chief justice was sworn in at a ceremony attended by the President himself, an act the experts said further eroded the rule of law.

On 5 November, five judges of the Supreme Court proceeded with the case. They held the term extensions unlawful, declared that the mandates of both the President and Parliament had expired, and ordered elections within ninety days. In a separate and pointed finding, the same bench ruled that the removal of Chief Justice Ahmed was itself unconstitutional and had been calculated to obstruct the court’s examination of the term-extension measures.

The government refused to comply. Instead, hundreds of security personnel were deployed to the Supreme Court, personal protection was withdrawn from seven judges despite acknowledged threats to their safety, and those judges were barred from travel. The experts condemned these measures as attempted intimidation and “serious threats to their security,” and called for the immediate restoration of protection and the withdrawal of security forces.

“Judges must be free to decide matters without improper influence, pressure, threat or interference,” the experts declared, reminding Somalia that international, African, and domestic law all treat judicial independence – especially in politically charged disputes – as “an essential guarantee of the rule of law and democracy.” They recalled the settled principle that judges may be removed only for incapacity or conduct that renders them unfit, and only after fair and independent proceedings.

The statement also revived earlier United Nations warnings that irregular and contested processes of constitutional reform, coupled with the absence of a genuinely independent judiciary, risk undermining Somalia’s counter-terrorism and stabilisation efforts at a moment of “grave peril” from Al-Shabaab.

By insisting that “the lawfully appointed Chief Justice Ahmed must be restored to office and his security and that of all other judges must be guaranteed,” the experts have transformed a domestic constitutional confrontation into a matter of international legal concern, affirming both the Supreme Court’s institutional courage and the non-negotiable character of judicial independence.

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