A member of the new interim parliament for Somalia has been freed from a seven-year prison term he was serving for treason in the northern region of Somaliland.

The man, Garaad Abshir Salah, was sentenced last month after his return from the Somali peace conference in neighbouring Djibouti, where he'd been elected to the transitional parliament.

He was freed in Hargeisa after being pardoned by the leader of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, who remains strongly opposed to the results of the Djibouti peace conference.

Community leaders from different parts of Somalia had called for Mr Garaad's release. Yesterday, officials from the Somaliland administration were attacked in Mr Garaad's home town of Buhodle by angry crowds demanding that he be freed.