By CYRUS OMBATI
Kenyan police are stranded with a terror suspect and Swiss national after his country refused to take him because of his links with the Islamist rebels in Somalia.
Police cannot deport 19-year-old Magd Najjar even after he was released from prison on charges of being in Kenya illegally.
He is in a police cell in the city after he paid a fine on his charges. Police had dropped charges for being a member of Al Shabaab and remained with him charges for being in Kenya illegally.
It was then anticipated authorities will deport him to Switzerland. It has now emerged that the Swiss authorities cannot take the Jordanian refugee who had been given asylum after he was convicted of links to Islamist rebels in Somalia.
“The Jordanian citizen … arrested in Kenya, may not enter Swiss territory until further notice,” said the Federal Justice Ministry in Bern in a statement.
“Clear evidence shows that he visited regions of Somalia where jihadist groups are involved in conflict (against the government). It also appears that he had contact with Islamist elements in Switzerland.”
Najjar was caught in May and convicted in Nairobi on June 6 of links to Islamist Al Shabaab rebels.
He now stands to lose his asylum status in Switzerland, since Swiss law states that this can be withdrawn if a refugee threatens or compromises national or international security.
Najjar is a student, lived in Bienne, a small town close to the Swiss capital.
Other reports indicated that Najjar has been handed over to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
But the hand over of the terror suspect to UNHCR was to be procedural and had not materialized by last week.
He was arrested from a lodging along Mfangano Street in Nairobi where he had been hiding for days after avoiding police dragnet.
He had been trailed to North Eastern province but avoided the police dragnet and abandoned a vehicle he was using and used a different one to Nairobi.
A police report on his movements says he and terror suspect Emrah Erdogan who was arrested in Tanzania had escaped from Somalia and came to Eastleigh for treatment.
They had apparently been injured in a shelling in Afmadowh area in Somalia. And after police got wind of them being in the city for treatment, they allegedly hired a salon car using third party that they wanted to travel to cross the main border.
Najjar’s traveling documents showed he entered Kenya on February 23, 2011 after he was granted a visa that was to run from January 31 2011 to April 30, 2011.
Police statistics show an increase of the number of foreigners flocking to Kenya seeking to join the Al Shabaab terror group.
