8 May 2013

Channel 4 News film Somali Justice wins award

Jamal Osman’s film about prisoners on death row in the troubled east African country wins the News category at the One World Media Awards.

Jamal Osman

Jamal (pictured, left, with cameraman Ahmed) found a convicted murderer and gained access to him in his prison cell in Bossasso.

He then tracked down the murderer’s mother, and the family of his victim, to get an insight into how justice is done in Somalia.

Under the Islamic sharia law that holds sway in the region, the family of a murder victim has three options: forgiveness, blood money or execution.

A man’s life is worth the value of 100 camels, or about $20,000. Prisoners whose families cannot find the money face being tied to a tree and shot dead.

The piece was shot by cameraman Ahmad Farrah, produced/directed by Teresa Smith and edited by Aggie Liggett.

Somali justice was up against CNN’s Aleppo: Race to Save Rena and The Sunday Times’s We Live in Fear of a Massacre by the late Marie Colvin.