Four people were charged with murder on Tuesday over last year’s suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, as defence lawyers warned that foreign interference could influence the outcome of the trial.
The charges against the four — Kenyan father and son Mohamed Kubwa and Mohamed Kubwa Seif, and Said Saggar Ahmed and Aboud Rogo Mohamed, whose nationalities were not known — were the latest in a string of anti-terror measures taken by Nairobi following a fresh US warning that the east African country was the target of imminent attacks by extremists.
At Tuesday’s hearing in a Nairobi court, defence lawyer Maobe Mao, representing Mohamed and Ahmed, said that foreign governments had pushed the Kenyan government to bring charges against the four people.
”The governments of Britain and the United states have put much pressure on the government to at least prosecute people over terrorism. That may influence the outcome of the trial for the suspects to be jailed,” said Mao.
”This case is intertwined with political pressure of an international dimension,” he said.
Mao said that while the United States and Britain had nothing against ”innocent Kenyans,” they had a bone to pick with the Kenyan government.
”This is clearly shown by recent claims by the US ambassador in Kenya that the government had done nothing and yesterday’s statement by the government that it would charge four people in response to US demands,” he said.
Last week, in yet another accusation that Kenya has dragged its feet in chasing down the perpetrators of extremist acts, US ambassador Johnny Carson complained that ”not a single person who has hosted extremists here has been arrested since 1998,” when a car bomb ripped through the US embassy building, killing 213 people.
But Nairobi chief magistrate Aggrey Muchelule said his court will not be influenced by any outside forces, but will rely on ”solid and concrete evidence” in building its case.
Muchelule directed that the four suspects be remanded in custody until July 8, when their case will return to court.
Muchelule rejected a request by defence lawyer Wandugi Karathe, representing Kubwa and his son Seif, to bar the press from the trial.
”You cannot really control what they are going to write,” he ruled.
The four are the first people to be charged in Kenya with murder in connection with a series of terrorist attacks that have rocked the country since the 1998 US embassy that killed 213 people, including 12 Americans.
The car bomb attack on the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa killed 18 people –12 Kenyans, three Israelis and three presumed suicide bombers. A simultaneous missile attack narrowly missed hitting an Israeli airliner after it took off from Mombasa airport.
The al-Qaeda terror network has claimed responsibility for the Mombasa attacks.
Even before the latest US warning, Britain last month advised its nationals against travelling to Kenya and banned its flights after Kenya said extremists were planning an attack in the country.
The charges read out in court on Tuesday said the four accused ”with others not before court, murdered 13 people at Paradise Hotel.”
It could not be immediately explained why the charge was for 13 deaths, as officials have repeatedly said that 18 people died, including three presumed bombers. – Sapa-AFP