Another law enforcement against Terror failure:
Four acquitted of 2002 Kenya hotel suicide blast By Wangui Kanina
1 hour, 22 minutes ago
A Kenyan judge on Thursday acquitted four men charged in the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel that killed 15 people, saying prosecutors had failed to link them to the bombers or al Qaeda.
Human rights groups and Muslim organizations welcomed the decision, saying it vindicated their assertion that Kenyan police were panicked into a hurried, incompetent investigation by strong pressure from Western governments looking for results.
Kenya High Court Justice John Osiemo said the lack of evidence was such that prosecutors should not have accused the four, who faced 15 counts of murder.
"The prosecution has not established that the four accused persons were at the scene of the murder, nor that they had met the two suicide bombers and there was a pre-arranged plan between them and the suicide bombers," Osiemo said.
Three Israelis and 12 Kenyans were killed after two suicide bombers broke through barriers outside the Paradise Hotel with a 4-wheel drive vehicle full of explosives on Nov. 28, 2002.
At almost the same time, a missile was fired but missed an Israeli airliner leaving the airport in the nearby Kenyan resort town of Mombasa. Three others have been charged with conspiracy in that case and a ruling is expected later this month.
So far, no one has been convicted in either case, the most high-profile terror cases in Kenya since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi.
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which is also blamed for the embassy blast, claimed responsibility for the missile attack and bombing at the hotel, a popular destination for Israeli package tourists in Kikambala, north of Mombasa.
Osiemo said there was no evidence connecting the defendants to al Qaeda, save calls between their mobile phones and that of a still-wanted suspect believed to be a top al Qaeda member in Kenya.
The defendants, Mohamed Ali Saleh Nabhan, Omar Said Omar, Mohammed Kubwa and Aboud Rogo Mohammed, had denied the charges.
The four Kenyans thrust their fists into the air, their wives burst into tears of joy and shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) filled the courtroom after Osiemo told them they were to be freed. One defendant wept.
"For two years, my father has been tortured. But now he is out and I am a little bit happy. But, inshallah (God willing) God will avenge them," said Saidi, Rogo's 10-year-old son.
Prison authorities released three of the accused but detained Omar Said Omar on a separate charge of illegally possessing a firearm in August 2003. Lawyers said he faced between seven to 15 years in jail if found guilty.
Outside the court, defense lawyer Amos Ngaira said the men plan to sue the government for their long incarceration on the grounds it was unjustified.
Rights groups have criticized the government for the lengthy trials, saying delays violated the defendants' rights.
They also have accused Kenyan and foreign security officers of torturing and abusing suspects during the initial investigation, a charge the government rejects.
"We have been following the case closely and we were of the impression that there was undue external pressure to have those people charged," said Miriam Kahiga of Amnesty International.
Mohammed Hyder, of the Muslim Civic and Educational Trust in Mombasa, said the investigation had been botched.
"The Kenyan authorities were reacting to pressure from the Americans and mistakes were made," he said.
Civil liberties groups said police investigating the bombing used heavy-handed tactics in the Mombasa area in the months after the attack, raiding homes and detaining hundreds of people on little or no evidence, and targeting Kenyans of Arab ancestry.
Mombasa locals said police raids were often done by officers posted from the interior with little sympathy for the Muslim ways of the coast and steeped in authoritarian habits cultivated under the 24-year rule of former President Daniel arap Moi.
The government denied its investigators cut corners but acknowledged it was in a rush to repair tourism, badly hit by the bombing and subsequent British and U.S. travel warnings due to alleged continuing security threats.
news.yahoo.com |
