Vol. 72/No. 29      July 21, 2008

The June 14 meeting, called by the Somali Peace and Development Organization, celebrated the release of Yassin Muhammed Ali, 42, and Omar Muhammed Ali, 38, who had been detained on frame-up “terrorist” charges and kept in solitary confinement for almost four months.

The day after the celebration, at the travel agency that he runs, Yassin talked to this reporter about how in the early morning hours of February 28, about a dozen cops from the national security squad of the Swedish police raided his home.

Omar joined in the discussion until he had to run to his job as a taxi driver. He told a similar story: the cops broke into his apartment, waking up his five small children before entering his bedroom. “They even refused to let my wife get dressed and cover her hair, an important thing in our religion,” he said.

The arrest of Yassin and Omar was part of a broad sweep against Somalis in Sweden. Somali hawalas (money transferring agencies), and other Somali businesses had their finances scrutinized by the government.

Yassin said that during the interrogations of himself and Omar, “the police were not interested in what terrorist activity we supposedly were supporting; instead they wanted information about other Somalis and what clan they belonged to… . They want to use that information to divide us. We instead want to downplay it. I, for example, don’t know what clan Omar belongs to.”

Seven child-care centers in Stockholm serving Somalis were closed in early March. The security police claimed the centers might be used to finance “terrorism.”

This arbitrary act was immediately met by a protest meeting of 400 people that started an intensive campaign to organize large defense meetings against the frame-ups. Charta 2008, a civil rights committee, was also formed to reach out.

Omar and Yassin were released June 11, and another detained Somali in Oslo a few days earlier. Also released was Ali Berzengi, a Kurd from Iraq also framed up on “terrorism” charges.

Filip Tedelund contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home