Akasha lawyers want IG Boinnet questioned on rendition

The Inspector General of Police Kenya Joseph Boinnet.(Photo: Moses Omusula/Standard)

Defence lawyers for Baktash Akasha, Ibrahim Akasha, an Indian national Vijaygiri Goswami and Gulam Hussein of Pakistan now want the Inspector General Joseph Boinnet held responsible for the contravention of a court order barring the four from being transferred to the United States of America.

Lawyer Cliff Ombeta said that IG Boinnet and Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Keriako Tobiko had been served with an order barring them from removing the four from the court's jurisdiction in Mombasa a day prior to their transfer to the US to face drug trafficking charges.

Defence lawyers have characterised this transfer as an extrajudicial rendition.

"The order still exists and cannot be wished away hence the DPP Keriako Tobiko and IG Joseph Boinnet should come to court and explain the issue of jurisdiction. The order was specifically addressed to the IG Boinnet after he took one of the suspects to Nairobi without court authorization," said Ombeta.

The four were extradited to the United States on January 30 2017 to face drug trafficking charges and later charged on February 1 2017 with four counts of conspiring to import narcotics into the United States.

They appeared before a US grand jury in New York where they are charged with engaging in among other things production of tonnes of narcotics within Kenya and throughout Africa and conspiring to import and distribute heroin and methamphetamine into the US.