Kenya: It was joy and relief for the family of Kenya's foremost drug baron, the late Ibrahim Akasha Abdallah, after his son Baktash Akasha was freed on bail after a three-month protracted court battle.
And yesterday, the Akashas and their foreign co-suspects lodged a formal objection at the magistrate's court against the State's intention to extradite them to the US.
Their lawyers, Kiraithe Wandugi and Cliff Ombeta, announced they will seek to terminate the extradition proceedings on the grounds that documents seeking to transfer them to the US are contradictory.
A court in New York has indicted the suspects on conspiracy charges, alleging they planned to export narcotics to the US, an offence punishable by life imprisonment.
The Akasha family has been embroiled in deadly feuds over an estate estimated at Sh5 billion.
But yesterday, the Akasha dynasty displayed unity as members waited for a ruling by Mombasa Chief Magistrate Maxwell Gicheru and sighed with relief as Baktash and Indian felon Vijay Goswami were set free after fulfilling stringent bail conditions.
"The documents presented to the court for the release of the accused are authentic. As such they can be released but they must follow the court order which dictates that they must report to the regional criminal investigation officer three times a week," said the magistrate.
Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Alex Muteti said the State was satisfied with the documents, including title deeds presented to free Baktash and Goswami after their verification by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers in Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa.
Baktash left Port Police Station together Vijay Goswami, a convicted drug lord from India with whom he was arrested on November last year, in a sting operation by US and Kenya anti-narcotics agents on Baktash's Nyali residence in Mombasa.
But the two left behind Baktash's younger brother Ibrahim and Pakistani co-suspect Gulam Hussein who are still battling to secure bond because documents to secure their freedom have not been verified.
Meanwhile, the State is still trying to overturn the bail given by the magistrate's court and High Court in Mombasa at the Court of Appeal on grounds that they are liable to flee justice because of the grave charges they are facing.
The suspects were first freed on December 1, last year, on a Sh5 million bond each with a similar surety and ordered to report to police every Thursday by Chief Magistrate Maxwell Gicheru, but the State obtained an order on the same day suspending their release and applied for a revision after a week before Justice Maureen Odero, who rejected the application and ordered the DPP to appeal the magistrate's order instead.
On February 11, this year, High Court Judge Justice Martin Muya judge ordered they deposit a Sh30 million bond and two similar sureties besides reporting to the police three times a week.
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