Ahmed, after many years abroad, had returned to Mogadishu in March, 2012.
Asli became fidgety with each passing hour and concerned in her comfortable home in Toronto, Canada.
Something was amiss.
Ahmed would call her every day from Kaaraan district in Mogadishu, where the family’s sprawling villa was located. She knew how dangerous Mogadishu could be.
On June 17, 2012 the family finally received the call that turned their world upside-down.
Ahmed, 48, had been found dead in one of the bedrooms in the villa. His uncle, Axmadey Hassan Ali Jimaale, discovered the corpse.
Jimaale and his family had been living in the villa since 1991. Asli had asked him to protect the property until her family returned to Somalia. Jimaale worked for the Somali government in the field of intelligence.
What devastated Asli and her family even more was the manner in which her son had died.
Ahmed, who was found bound, gagged, and stabbed multiple times, was said to have had killed himself.
“Suicide?” screamed his mother.
She was incredulous at the notion that a man could tie himself up, and then stab himself so many times.
“There are other, and perhaps, easier ways one can end his life,” Asli muttered.
A female relative told Asli, over the phone, immediately after the body was found that Ahmed had actually been murdered.
The Kaaraan district police officers, who came to the house and investigated the scene, had difficulty believing it was a case of suicide. The story flew in the face of all the evidence. To the police, It was a staged crime scene. The uncle, it seemed to the authorities, knew more than he was letting on.
“How could you not have heard any noises last night? You were sleeping next room?” one police officer asked the uncle.
The police took Ahmed’s uncle and, later, his aunt into custody on suspicion of murder.
An autopsy by an independent medical examiner proved the police they were right when he ruled the case a homicide. Ahmed had been stabbed in his kidneys, liver, heart, back, under the shoulder-blades, and in his throat. The stab wound to the heart, according to the autopsy report, was the fatal blow. A knife left in his throat was determined to have been placed five hours after Ahmed’s death, in an effort to make the killing look self-inflicted.
Hussein Abdirahman, Ahmed’s younger brother, was appalled by the way his brother had met his demise.
“It is the savagery of the crime that is very disturbing,” he stated.
Hussein, a criminal justice major, had his own theory of who might have done it, but the evidence was merely circumstantial.
“Most likely, it is someone holding on to hatred, or grudge, or perhaps, has a financial stake in the commission of this heinous crime,” Hussein stated.
Ahmed Abdulkhadir Abdirahman was born in Mogadishu in 1964 to Somali-Arab parents. His nickname was “Ahmed Bare” because he had a red birthmark the size of an eraser on his forehead. His father, Abdulkhadir, was one of the first Somali school principals in the country. Ahmed’s father was a product of a Somali-Arab father and a mother who hailed from a dominant clan in Mogadishu. The father passed away in 2004.
“My late husband had held some important government posts,” noted Asli.
The family was doing well financially when the Somali Civil War broke out in 1991. They owned six commercial stores, all of which adjacent to their home.
Ahmed had nine siblings, and was the third oldest. He was also the father of two daughters, ages 14 and 11.
“My brother was pleasant, kind, gentle, gregarious and loving,” remembered Hussein. “He had an ebullient personality.”
Asli recalled how her son, as a student, had displayed high intellect and a seriousness of purpose.
“He was the first in his class,” she said with pride. “He decided to return to Mogadishu after he had studied civil engineering in Saudi Arabia, in order to help his people.”
Ahmed was one of thousands of Somalis who had returned to war-torn Mogadishu after two decades of absence due to the civil war. The city has been enjoying relative peace and stability, and business has started to boom. Many of the returnees naturally attempted to reclaim their properties, which they had abandoned in the early 1990s. Tensions arose between those who were reclaiming their properties and the others who had illegally occupied them. There have been instances when the returnees were asked to pay extortion money, or even ended up being killed for simply asking for what was rightfully theirs.
Ahmed’s family did not have to worry because their property was in good hands. The uncle moved into the villa to make sure it did not fall into the wrong hands. He never paid rent, nor did he share the revenues from the six stores with Ahmed’s family.
According to Asli, Ahmed’s return was his own choice, and, hence, never coordinated with the family. His arrival in Mogadishu, according to the family, was not an attempt to reclaim the family property. Ahmed was given a room in the family’s five-bedroom villa but was uncomfortable with the way his uncle treated him.
“My son was scared and even forewarned me about an imminent danger,” said Asli, choking on her tears.
Hussein also said that he had been getting daily text messages from his brother in the two weeks prior to his death.
“Ahmed would complain about his uncle and aunt, and say that the two had a secret agenda to take over the ownership of the villa,” Hussein added.
In one instance, according to the mother, while Ahmed was drinking tea in the house, his uncle grabbed the cup from him and said, “What are you doing here? Don’t you know that there are people out there who are coming to kill you?”
Ahmed, according to the family, calmly told his uncle that he would defend himself.
Asli said that Ahmed called her afterwards and was growing increasingly agitated and fearful for his life. That is when he decided to move out of the family house and rent a place in the Hamarweyne District.
One week later, he was dead.
Prior to Ahmed’s killing, a man had contacted Asli and told her he was serious about buying the villa. She called Ahmed and asked him to show the villa to the potential buyer. Ahmed told her that he did not want to get involved for fear of alienating his uncle. It was the uncle who had previously dissuaded the family from selling the property.
Ahmed’s uncle and aunt were eventually released on bail, but the investigation continued. The family is concerned that the two might be flight-risk.
A day after the incident, Hussein called one of his cousins only to find his call transferred to the jail where his aunt was being held.
“What did you do?” asked Hussein.
“Ahmed was my son. Why would I kill my own son,” responded the aunt.
According to the uncle, Ahmed had gone to bed at 11 on the night before, and said that he was afraid. The uncle told him to go to his room, and assured that no one would bother him. Ahmed did not appear for breakfast. It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon when the uncle became concerned and broke down Ahmed’s locked door.
Ahmed’s motionless body was found.
Hussein talked to his uncle afterwards and became suspicious. A statement made by the uncle caught him off-guard.
“They [perpetrators] had stabbed Ahmed viciously,” the uncle said.
The word “they,” was revealing, according to Hussein, and indicated the uncle knew that more than one person had been involved in the killing.
It was also odd that the uncle was implying that Ahmed, after all, did not kill himself.
The family is perplexed at the glacial pace of the investigation.
There is skepticism that the case will be solved soon. The prosecutors are backlogged with thousands of cases. Mogadishu’s 2 million residents have only nine full time prosecutors.
Moreover, the family’s minority status, according to Hussein, is hampering any progress in the case. The family is feeling injustice and the government’s lack of genuine interest in solving the murder.
It was only after members of the Somali-Arab community in Mogadishu got involved in the case was Ahmed’s autopsy administered.
Speaking in cautious but hopeful tones, Hussein said that the family is facing a daunting task, but that they would never give up until all of the perpetrators are put behind bars.
“It is the duty of the government,” he further emphasized, “to bring justice to the table, and treat all citizens equally before the law.”
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