The deputy director of a radio station in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland in north east Somalia has been sentenced to six years in prison following a court case from which the media were banned. Abdifatah Jama Mire was given the sentence after the radio station Horseed Media FM broadcast an interview in which he interviewed Mohamed Said Attom, an Islamist rebel chief who has been linked to Al-Qaeda. Seven journalists from the station were initially arrested but so far only Mire has been charged. All media reporters were banned from the trial, which ended in minutes.