Somalia President dismisses chief justice

With less than five months left to his mandate, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud sacked Wednesday the country’s chief justice AVV Aidid Ilkahanaf, Horseed Media reports.

Mr Mohamoud sacked the top judge through a Presidential decree and immediately appointed a new chief justice.
President Mohamoud appointed AVV Ibrahim Idle Suleiman, the former chief justice of the breakaway Northern region of Somaliland. According to reports, he stepped down from the post a week ago.
He called for the country’s judicial and security departments to work closely with the new chief of justice.
Reasons behind the dismissal of the former chief justice remain unclear, but since last year there was an ongoing rift between the President and the Supreme Court chief.
On several occasions, AVV. Ilkahanaf accused Somali President of running “systematic campaign against the country’s institutions … and the judiciary in particular.”
Analysts and commentators have said that President Mohamoud has made moves to expand his powers to the judiciary system from the legislatives and executives, in a desperate move to be re-elected.
Horseed Media