Update: On february 25, Abdirahman Abeys was released from custody after spending 6 weeks in detention. A Hargeisa regional court in Somaliland said he was exercising his freedom of expression.

British-Somalilander poet Abdirahman Abeys was arrested on January 12, 2019 in Hargeisa, Somaliland, one day after a poetry reading in which he criticized law enforcement in the disputed northern region of Somalia that considers itself a sovereign state. He remains detained without charge.

Abeys, a poet holding dual British and Somaliland nationality, hosted a poetry evening in Hargeisa on January 11 organized under the theme “Try and imagine the future of Somaliland and its police force.” He introduced his poetry by discussing the region’s tense sociopolitical situation and recited poems on the subjects of police brutality, arbitrary detentions, and poor leadership—all of which are common in Somaliland.

The following day, Abeys was approached by Somaliland police while eating at a restaurant in Hargeisa and placed under arrest. Witnesses to the arrest confirmed that authorities did not show Abeys an arrest warrant, and the Somaliland Human Rights Centre later confirmed that no court order for Abeys’s arrest had been issued. He has been held incommunicado at the Counterterrorism Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department in Hargeisa since his arrest, and an official visitation request by the Human Rights Centre was denied.

Somaliland has sought independence from Somalia since its status as British protectorate ended in 1960, and animosity between the two regions eventually led to the Somali Civil War that started in 1986 and remains ongoing. The region has been known to repress dissent and criticism in recent years, having utilized “Security Committees” to circumvent courts and ignore due process rights for the accused.

Poet Naema Ahmed Ibrahim was arrested and held in a similar manner to Abeys last year, and another freedom of expression case continues to work its way through Somaliland courts as the editors of a private newspaper face trial for “publication of false news” and “defamation.” The summons in that case provides no details of the allegations against the two men.