Lawmaker calls for ‘credible courts’

Somalian opposition politician Abdallah Ibrahim is urging the AU, the Arab League, the UN ‘and other international partners’ to establish independent courts. His document, the Mutually Accountability Framework, calls for the passing electoral laws by December and the promulgation of a new constitution by next June. He argues that the lack of a credible judicial system and the failure to draw up a new constitution is fomenting lawlessness. ‘We don't have a reliable judicial system and there is no constitutional court. There is no competent agency to address differences between the arms of government or the federal government and the states,’ he said. The executive member of the Cahdi Party said there was also no competent organisation to handle post-election grievances and, as a result, civilians resorted to dealing with problems using al-Shabaab courts. The Sunday Nation could not verify this claim, but a recent Voice of America report indicated the militant group has infiltrated government departments and collects taxes. Donors are meeting in Mogadishu to discuss the key Transition Plan that includes holding universal suffrage elections by 2021. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, the US last week reopened its embassy in Mogadishu, nearly three decades after it was shut as the Horn of Africa nation plunged into civil war.