Father to terror suspect happy his son is alive, calls for fair trial

Salim Rashid Mohamed and his counterparts were arrested by Congolese armed forces as they begged for food. [Courtesy]

The father of suspected terrorist Salim Rashid Mohamed who was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo last week had believed his son was long dead, December 4, 2020, having been the last time he saw him.

However, Mohamed Rashid was overjoyed and shed tears of joy when he learnt from the news that his son was still alive even though he was in police custody after his arrest on Saturday.

And now, all that Rashid wants is a fair trial when his son is finally brought to Kenya to face terror-related charges.

“All along I knew my son had either been killed or kidnapped. However, since he is alive, I am praying for a fair trial in court when he is brought back to the country,” said Rashid.

He said h reported to the police immediately Salim went missing and a search for him started.

"However, our efforts to trace him bore no fruit. I had lost the hope of ever finding my son alive. For some time, I had believed my son had either been killed or hijacked by unknown people," Rashid told The Standard from his home in Majengo, Mombasa County.

Salim Rashid Mohamed was deported by Turkey after being suspected to be a member of ISIS. [Courtesy]

Rashid said his son was a bright student and always topped in the class, from nursery to secondary school. He said Salim scored an A- in his KCSE exams Aga Khan Secondary School in 2014. He'd also performed well at Qubaa Primary School.

“He was a bright student who had no problem with his teachers or fellow students. He was obedient, polite, and generally disciplined. He loved his siblings. I do not know what went wrong,” said Rashid.

Police reports indicated that Salim had a pending terror-related case before the magistrate’s court in Kwale County before he disappeared in 2020.

Police believe Salim was among part of a group of youth from Kwale who had been recruited into a terror cell.

Salim was arrested at Kombani in Kwale in 2017 in a house where police said they found materials they said were used by the al Shabaab.

He faced terror-related charges following his arrest before he was released on a cash bail of Sh 1.5 million.

A source confided in The Standard that the suspect was among the youth who later went to Gabo Delgado province in Mozambique and joined an al-Shabaab cell there.

Salim Rashid Mohamed was among a group of Kwale youth recruited to join an al-Shabaab cell in Mozambique. [DCI]

The group which temporarily caused mayhem in Gabo Delgado province Mozambique was flashed out by joint forces of Rwanda and South Africa.

A source told said Salim and his counterparts were arrested by Congolese armed forces as they begged for food.

The suspect, who was born in 1996 according to his father, will be brought to the country after DRC's security personnel complete interrogating him over claims he was a member of Allied Democratic Forces in Eastern Congo near the border with Uganda.

Rashid they have already hired lawyer Yusuf Abubakar to represent his son during the trial after he has been brought back to Kenya.

Police reports indicated that the suspect comes from a well-off family and was a top student in school.

The report says Salim had extremely been radicalized and despite his family’s effort to have him go for formal education and take up a career, he opted to be a terrorist. The police said they suspect he was a "chief be-header".

Salim is said to have gone to Turkey to study computer engineering after refusing to join Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. He was later deported by Turkey after being suspected to be a member of ISIS.