MOGADISHU — Investigators in Somalia have concluded that the country’s National Intelligence and Security Agency was not responsible for the presumed death of one of its officers. The committee said there was no evidence the agency was involved in the June disappearance of 24-year-old Ikram Tahlil Farah. Tahlil’s parents have rejected the committee’s findings and blame the spy agency, which blames the death on the al-Shabab terrorist group.
General Abdullahi Bulle Kamey, the chief prosecutor of the Armed Forces Court, said his team’s investigation found no sign that Somalia’s chief intelligence agency was responsible for disappearance and presumed death of the officer.
He said the investigators tasked have found no evidence whatsoever to link the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officials to the missing female spy Ikran Tahlil Farah. He also asked that anyone with information in the case present it to the authorities.
The mother of the missing cyber security intelligence official, Qali Mohamed Guhad, dismissed the committee’s findings.
She said that they were very astonished with the verdict and her family was not expecting such result. They do not accept the outcome at all, she added.
Ismail Dahir is a security analyst and former deputy director of Somalia’s spy agency. He alleges that NISA officials — including its acting director — hold sway over the lower house of parliament.
He said acquitting the suspects without the submitting the process to the court is unlawful and will damage the credibility of the ongoing electoral process, adding that the family of the slain spy might resort to seeking alternative means to take justice into their own hands.
Farah was an officer for NISA’s cyber security unit. She was last seen June 26 near the agency’s headquarters in Mogadishu.
To date, no one has found her body, but NISA declared her dead in September.
In an earlier report, the spy agency blamed the death of their officer on the militant group al-Shabab. But the group has strongly denied any involvement.
Source: Voice of America