Aboud Rogo's widow to serve 10 years in prison over police station attack

The widow of radical Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo Mohamed was yesterday jailed for 10 years by a Mombasa court for aiding terror suspects attack a police station two years ago.

The magistrate who jailed Haniya Said Saggar at Shanzu law courts said the prosecution had proved that she conspired with the three attackers who raided Central Police Station on September 11, 2016.

“I accordingly find the accused person guilty of the offence of conspiracy to commit a felony, terrorist attack at the Central Police Station,” said Senior Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache as she read the sentence yesterday.

Haniya’s husband was a controversial preacher and imam of Musa Mosque in Mombasa, killed by suspected State agents on August 27, 2012 in an attack on a truck he was driving two weeks after he had been placed on a UN and US sanctions lists for alleged material support for Al Shabaab.

Haniya, a mother of seven who was with Rogo was injured in the attack and reports indicate a bullet is still lodged in one of her legs.

She was arrested on September 14 at her home in Kanamai, Kilifi following the daring early morning attack on the police station and indicted on several terror related charges then freed on a Sh1 million bond.

She was charged with 27-year-old Nasteho Ali Thalil, 24-year-old Luul Ali Tahlil and 23-year-old Zam Zam Abdi who are linked to Tasmin Abdullahi Farah, Ramla Abdirahman Hussein and Maimuna Abdirahman who launched an attack at the station.

Attack’s ringleader

Charges against Haniya’s co-accused were withdrawn for lack of evidence. Local activists have questioned the official version of the September attack and even claimed Tasmin, Ramla and Maimuna were killed by the State in cold blood. An Islamist group claimed the attack on behalf of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

Tasmin, Ramla and Maimuna were the alleged suicide bombers at the police station and died in the fire that erupted during the clash with police inside the reception of the station.

Haniya was found guilty of being in conspiracy and facilitating the 2016 attack at the Central Police Station.

According to the magistrate, Haniya’s behaviour and conduct demonstrate she was a con-conspirator in the station raid.

“The above actions created a reasonable ground for believing that the accused person was part of the conspiracy to attack the police station,” said the magistrate adding that the accused remained liable for the deadly events as a co-conspirator despite not being present at the police station on the material day.

The magistrate said adequate proof had been brought to court establishing that Haniya and the three slain women acquired the Airtel cellphone lines they communicated with together.

“All the wrongful acts that were done by Tasnim and the two other women are attributed to her,” added Mochache who also said Haniya had planned the alleged crime with the attack’s ringleader for at least three months prior to the attack.

Meanwhile the magistrate said the State had proved police shot the three women in self-defence after they lobbed a petrol bomb and stabbed an officer.