Three terror suspects arrested in Malindi arraigned in court

Three terror suspects arrested in Malindi arraigned in court

Three suspected terrorists arrested in Malindi town on Tuesday night were Thursday arraigned at the Malindi Law Courts.

The three; Abdulaziz Ali Sultan, Hamid Majid Hamid and Imran Hassan appeared before Malindi Senior Resident Magistrate Yvonne Khatambi but were not charged.

The investigating officer from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations asked the court to grant them 27 days to complete their investigations before preferring charges against the suspects.

In an affidavit sworn and read by Cpl. Fatuma Kassim, the court heard that they require time to get the suspects’ call data records and take their laptops, and mobile phones to Nairobi for analysis.

“The prosecution is requesting for 27 days to complete their investigations,’’ she said.

The officer told the court that suspects were being investigated on allegations that they were planning terror attacks in Malindi, Mombasa, Garsen and Lamu.

In her testimony, the investigating officer said the suspects, if released, could intimidate potential witnesses in the matter which she described as sensitive.

She asked the court to remand the suspects at the Malindi Police Station pending completion of investigations.

The suspects, who were represented by lawyer Yusuf Aboubakar, objected to the affidavit saying holding them for mere suspicion would be infringing their rights to freedom as there was no proof to guarantee them detention pending investigations.

At one time, Mr. Henry Achochi from the Director of Public Prosecutions office was forced to intervene during the cross examination arguing that the lawyer had gone outside the affidavit.

“The suspects were arrested on June 28th within Malindi sub county, we are not able to have sufficient evidence to charge them from the time they were arrested,’’ he said.

He quoted the Anti-Terrorism Act that allows police to hold suspects for 90 days pending investigations and argued that they had only sought for 27 days.

“The matter under investigation are sensitive in nature touching the security of this country, we pray that the court May grant us the 27 days,’’ he said.

The Magistrate allowed the prosecutor to continue cross examination within the context of the affidavit.

The magistrate said she would give a ruling on the application on July 1st on whether the suspects will be released on bond or not.

The three suspects were arrested on Tuesday night after police raided one house suspected to be housing Al Shabaab fighters.

During the raid, one suspect was gunned down by the police while an officer injured.

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kenya malindi Terror Suspects

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