Three terror suspects to undergo medical tests, Mombasa court

Shukri Ali Hajji (left), Saida Ali Hajji and Naima Mohamed at the Mombasa Law Courts yesterday facing charges of harbouring a terror suspect, Tasmin Yakub Abdullahi, at their Kibokoni home. The case will be mentioned on September 21 at the Shanzu Law Courts. (PHOTO: KELVIN KARANI/ STANDARD)

A Mombasa court has ordered psychiatric evaluation of three women accused of harbouring the terrorists who attacked a police station on Sunday.

The court yesterday said it will be important to establish if they are mentally and medically fit to stand trial following doubts over their ages, and claims that two of them suffer from hearing impairment.

Investigations have revealed that the three are in the country as refugees and possessed refugee cards.

Police claim the women who were gunned down during the raid on Mombasa Central Police Station lived with the detained women before staging the attack.

Resident Magistrate Emmanuel Mutunga directed that Naima Mohamed Ali, Saida Ali Hajji, and Shukri Ali Hajji who is said to be deaf, be detained for five more days in order to undergo psychiatric tests before they can be subjected to trial.

The three were arrested on Sunday evening at Kibokoni in Mombasa after investigations established that one of the three killed suicide bombers, Tasmin Yakub, had been hosted by them.

Investigations further revealed four mobile phones with SIM cards were recovered from the suspects and they are believed to belong to Yakub.

Giving the directive, Mr Mutunga ordered the women to be escorted to a specialist at the Coast General Hospital for the medical check-up.

"A psychiatric test should be conducted on all the three suspects and the third suspect (Shukri) should be taken to the Coast General Hospital for confirmation whether she can hear or not," said Mutunga.

Senior State lawyer Alexander Muteti had applied to have the three detained for five days to allow for their medical examination.

Mr Muteti also applied for the women's next court appearance to be conducted in Shanzu Maximum Prison after raising security concerns over the matter that has attracted a massive public interest.

"Considering the public interest and the security safety of the matter, we pray the matter be mentioned at Shanzu," said Muteti.

Muteti said that for purposes of putting the suspects on notice, they intended to separate Naima and Saida's proceeding from Shukri's.

The Prosecutor submitted that Naima and Saida could clearly understand and speak Somali language whereas Shukri was unable to communicate with the court.