Somali teenager arrested for reporting rape

THE United Nations in Somalia has called for a proper investigation after a teenage rape victim was arrested for alleging in a video interview that she had been raped at gunpoint.

The joualist who interviewed her has also been arrested.

Al Jazeera reports the 19-year-old woman alleges she was raped in the nation's capital, Mogadishu.

In an interview filmed by Mohamed Bashir, a reporter for Somalia's most popular and influential network, Radio Shabelle, the victim alleges she was attacked by a joualist from the same station. In the interview she names the man who she claims raped her, yet her alleged attacker has not yet been arrested or charged.

Govement official Abdirahman Omar Osman confirmed the victim and Bashir were arrested on Wednesday on charges of defamation.

\"She admitted to have been pressured to make the video by [Bashir],\" said Omar Osman.

However the woman initially said in the recorded interview that she had been tricked into going to a house where two men threatened and raped her.

\"One of the men threatened me with a pistol, and took me to the bedroom by force... both of them raped me several times, destroying my pride and dignity,\" the AFP news agency quotes Ms Hassan as saying in the interview.

The owner of the station was also arrested, but later released on \"medical grounds\". Radio Shabelle is also owned by the State.

The pair are set to appear in court in a matter of days.