British terror suspect Jermaine Grant gets 9 years in Jail

British terror suspect Jermaine Grant was on Wednesday sentenced to nine years in jail after a Mombasa High Court overturned his acquittal over forgery charges.

The accused was convicted of nine counts of forgery before High Court Judge Martin Muya for attempting to illegally acquire Kenyan identification documents.

The charges included making a false statement for registration of birth, three counts of procuring a document by false pretenses and one count of attempting to falsely procure registration.

Muya ruled that Grant was involved in the forgery of the document on various dates in September 2011 and will serve one year separately for each count.

In his ruling, Judge Muya said Magistrate Anastacia Ndungu failed to consider that Grant had approached an accomplice in the forgery of a birth certificate

Grant’s lawyer Chacha Mwita, however, says they will appeal the ruling, which he termed as unfair and harsh to his client.

This comes just a day after the High Court overturned a ruling by a lower court that had acquitted the accused of nine charges for lack of evidence on January 28.

Grant, who appeared before Justice Muya, was arrested in December 2011 at his Kisauni house and charged with engaging in forgery, robbery and being in possession of explosives.

Grant is facing other terror related charges at Shanzu Law Courts where he is accused of being in possession of explosive material with intention of committing a felony; the matter is set for hearing on January 2016.

The accused had in the past served a three-year jail term at Shimo la Tewa Prison for being in the country illegally.