The trial in Nairobi of six men, including a priest, accused of murdering a septugenarian Italian bishop in central Kenya earlier this year hit a snag on Monday when one of the defendents claimed to have lost his hearing under police torture.
Over prosecution objections, Nairobi High Court Nicholas Ombinja adjourned the trial, which had been scheduled to start on Monday, after a defence lawyer said one of the accused had been deafened by police mistreatment while in custody.
”I have decided to adjourn this case until December 13 when parties will come to make the necessary applications,” Ombija said, ordering the defence to present whatever petitions might arise from the allegation at that date.
All six, who were charged in September, two months after the killing of 77-year-old Bishop Luigi Locati, have accused the police of torturing them, but Monday’s claim was the first to allege permanent physical damage.
Police and prosecutors have denied the claims, which led the court to order medical examinations of the men, the results of which were submitted on Monday, according to a judicial source.
The source did not have details of the reports but prosecutor Jacob Ondari said there was no truth to the defence allegation that defendent Mohammed Bika Wario lost his hearing in police custody.
”It is not true that he developed hearing problem after the arrest,” Ondari told the court.
”He had it even before he was arrested and there is no medical report … to substantiate the allegations.”
Wario, along with Roman Catholic priest Guyo Wako, Mohammed Molu Bagajo, Aden Ibrahim Mohammed, Mahati Ali Halake and Roba Balla Barichi, all face capital murder charges in connection with the July 14 slaying of Bishop Locati.
Locati was murdered at the church compound in Isiolo — about 200km north of the capital — that he founded four decades ago in what police say was a power-struggle and row over money in his diocese.
Locati was murdered during the same week that about 80 people were killed in an inter-clan village massacre and reprisal attacks in northeastern Kenya and police initially suspected the murder may have been related to that violence.
Subsequently, police said the killing appeared to linked more to conflicts within the Catholic community in Isiolo in the run-up to Locati’s impending retirement.
The bishop founded the Isiolo diocese as a small parish church in 1963 and worked hard for his flock, building schools and sinking wells in the semi-arid region.
A native of Vinzaglio in the northern Italian province of Vercelli, he was ordained a priest in 1952 and came to Kenya 10 years later.
More than a thousand people, including President Mwai Kibvaki, attended his funeral and Pope Benedict XVI expressed his sadness. – Sapa-AFP