High Court stops release of Makueni doctor jailed for being ISIS member

The High Court in Nairobi has stopped the release of a Makueni doctor who was this week found guilty of being a member of ISIS terror group and jailed for 12 years.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), in a statement on Thursday, said the sentence that was slapped on Mohammed Abdi Ali alias Abu Fidaa was set to run from the day of his arrest on April 29, 2016.

The convict was supposedly set for release on Monday next week, but the High Court has since blocked this following an application filed by the ODPP.

“High Court presided over by Lady Justice Lilian Mutende has just issued interim stay orders against the release and grant of remission of Mohammed Abdi Ali alias Abu Fidaa pending hearing and determination of an application filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP),” read the prosecution’s statement.

“He was due to be released on Monday, 29th April, 2024. Inter parte hearing of the application has been fixed for the 29th April, 2024 at 9am.”

Magistrate Martha Mutuku, while sentencing Fidaa to 12 years in jail on Monday, said she had considered the 8 years the convict has been in prison.

Fidaa had been found guilty of linking youths with other ISIS fighters in Libya.

He was also found to have been planning to establish an ISIS caliphate in Kenya and the East African region at large back in 2016.

Fidaa had been charged alongside one Nuseibah Mohammed Hajji alias Umm Fidaa, who was acquitted on April 12, 2024, for lack of sufficient evidence.