Somaliland court acquits Ethiopia rebels

Mar 26, 2006 (HARGEISA) — Somaliland’s supreme court has acquitted 24 members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) accused of planning to attack Ethiopia from inside the breakaway enclave, officials said on Sunday.

The ONLF is a rebel group of ethnic Somalis fighting for independence from Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government has long accused the group of attacking its troops in the vast area.

Court officials said the suspects, who were arrested in 2003, were released on Saturday because there was insufficient evidence against them.

“The case against my clients has been at last concluded. What remains is to arrange for their departure from Somaliland,” defence lawyer Bashir Hussein Abdi told reporters.

He said the supreme court had reached the same verdict in September 2005, but the prosecutor general had appealed against the ruling and requested a retrial.

Last year, landlocked Ethiopia said it would use the Red Sea port of Berbera in Somaliland to import fuel and goods.

Somaliland, a former British protectorate, broke away from Somalia in 1991 and has been a relatively stable enclave, which held its first multi-party election in 2003.

(Reuters)