Mogadishu, Somalia / Washington, DC, U.S. – 22 August 2025 –  The Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR) strongly denounce the attempts of Premier Bank to silence Abdalle Mumin, a human rights defender and journalist. At the behest of Premier Bank, a major Somali financial institution with strong ties to the Somali government, the UK law firm Taylor Hampton threatened Mr. Mumin with a defamation suit if he did not retract social media posts criticizing the bank.

Mr. Mumin is the Secretary General of SJS and a longtime partner of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, who has dedicated his career to promote media freedom in Somalia and combat impunity for human rights violations against journalists and others. Beginning in October 2022, when Mr. Mumin criticized the Somali government’s restrictions on journalists’ abilities to report news, he was arbitrarily arrested three times, detained, and tortured by Somali state security forces. In September 2023, SJS and RFKHR submitted a communication to the UN Human Rights Committee for the human rights violations Mr. Mumin faced. Seemingly at the behest of government officials, the Premier Bank suspended SJS’ bank account shortly afterward, in retaliation for Mr. Mumin and SJS’ attempt to seek justice. 

After his work in Somalia was no longer possible due to sustained persecution by Somali authorities, Mr. Mumin left Somalia for the UK. While in the UK, he has continued his work with SJS, speaking out against the increasingly restrictive civic space environment and corruption among the upper echelon of Somali authorities. His relocation, however, has not spared him from repression attempts by powerful and corrupt actors who seek to silence him.

Earlier this year, Mr. Mumin received a letter from Taylor Hampton, a major London-based law firm, threatening him with a defamation suit if he did not withdraw social media posts that criticized their client, Premier Bank. The letter also accused Mr. Mumin of authoring news articles that revealed corrupt links between Premier Bank and Somali government officials, articles that Mr. Mumin denies writing. In an attempt to intimidate Mr. Mumin and pressure him to forfeit his right to freedom of expression, Taylor Hampton demanded an immediate response, with financially ruinous consequences to follow if he did not self-censor. 

Mr. Mumin decided to fight back against this attempt to silence him. With partners at the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition and Good Law Project, Mr. Mumin sent a legal response to Premier Bank’s baseless claims and filed a complaint against Taylor Hampton with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the UK regulatory body for lawyers. The defamation threat against Mr. Mumin highlights the trend of using so-called SLAPP suits – Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation– by large corporations and foreign governments to engage in transnational repression, threatening to financially ruin human rights defenders for speaking out. 

Journalists and human rights defenders must be protected from transnational repression, even when these threaten some with the legal veneer of a defamation suit. SJS and RFKHR also call on the SRA to investigate Taylor Hampton’s conduct and determine whether the firm fulfilled its legal and ethical obligations.