How Sanbaloolshe Misspoke About the Extradition of Qalbidhagah

[Deeq A.]

Abdullahi Mohamed Ali ( aka Sanbaloolshe), the former director of the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency launched in January 2020 a media campaign “to set the record straight” over the extradition of Abdikarim Qalbidhagah to Ethiopia in 2017.

Sanbaloolshe has come under fire for his role in the rendition of a Somali citizen.
Dalsan TV website interview with SanbalolLshe has been exceptionally telling for the details the former NISA director had disclosed. “President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has signed the extradition process” Sanbaloolshe said. “In my role I believe I handled the case the best way one could handle and that how Qalbidhagah went to Ethiopia. Puntland and Galmudug were separately vying for the extradition of Qalbidhagah”, who lived in South Galka’yo under Galmudug administration.

Sanbaloolshe said that “Allah predestined the extradition of Qalbidhagah. I unreservedly apologise to Qalbidhagah for my role in his extradition. I have a lot of classified information.” He implied that he acted on intelligence to prevent Qalbidhagah from falling into the hands of two federal member states that ” were plotting to extradite” the Somali citizen.

The former NISA director has unwittingly disclosed classified information in the interview when he distances himself from the extradition order to argue that ” the buck stops with the Somali President.”

Ali presenting his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II in 2013

Abdi Abdullahi Hashi, the Speaker of Somalia’s Upper House, challenges Sanbaloolshe’s version of events. In an interview with a Somali news website, Mr Hashi said: ” I was invited to a meeting with the Somali President and Sanbalooshe. The President asked Sanbaloolshe to tell me what he had told  the President. Sanbaloolshe told us that Qalbidhagah, as  senior ONLF officer, had made a deal with Ethiopia and asked for  the Federal Government to extradite him  to Ethiopia. Sanbaloolshe was fervently making the case to extradite Qalbidhaha.”

The Somali Federal Parliament formed a committee to investigate the extradition case. The committee report concluded that Abdikarim Qalbidhagah was extradited illegally and the Somalia does not view ONLF as a terrorist organisation.” The report of the committee has resulted in  the resignation of Sanbaloolshe as NISA director.

In 2013 Sanbaloolshe was appointed the Somli Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He presented his diplomatic credentials to Queen Elizabeth II. The British Government has not permitted Sanbaloolshe to live in London  as Somalia’s Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s. Somalia does not have an embassy in the United Kingdom despite Britain spearheading the state-making efforts in Somalia through three conferences held in 2012, 2013 and 2017.

The extradition of Qalbidhagah dented the confidence many Somalis  had in the Federal Government. Sanbaloolshe has shown bravery to own up to his mistake but his claim that Qalbidhagah went to Ethiopia and that the President of Somalia ordered  the extradition contradicts the efforts he argues he had to extradite Qalbidhagah to Ethiopia nearly three years ago.

 © Puntland Post Monthly, 2020

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