Iranian terror suspects in court

By Isaiah Lucheli
Two Iranians being held on suspicion of being terrorists appeared in court protesting failure by the police to adhere to court orders issued.

The Iranians Ahmed Mohamed and Sayed Mansour through their lawyer protested that the prison authority had detained them at the Kamiti Maximum prison instead of the industrial area prison as directed by the court.

Lawyer Kiraithe Wandugi said that they had been taken to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) instead of Nairobi hospital to seek specialised treatment contrary to the ruling by the court.

The prosecutor Daniel Musangi however explained that they had taken the suspects to KNH for their own security and the commissioner of prison had also opted to detain them at Kamiti as the prison had better security facilities than Industrial area prison.

The prosecutor explained the changes had been necessitated by the threat posed by the two suspects to the 40 million Kenyans.

He added that taking them to a private health facility would have posed serious security challenges for the government due to the nature of the charge they are facing.

The Principal Magistrate Paul Biwott however hit out at the Commissioner of Prisons of defying the ruling of the court by transferring the suspects to Kamiti instead of Industrial area prison and failing to take them to Nairobi Hospital.

Biwott however ruled that the suspects be detained at the Kamiti Maximum prison and cautioned the director of prison against transferring the suspects without filing an application in court to change the detention site.

The court also ruled that relatives of the suspects should be allowed to visit the suspects and where necessary their personal doctors should be allowed to access them.

The court rejected bail application by two Iranians who were arrested with 15 kilogrammes of materials used to manufacture explosives.

Mohammed had claimed that he had been tortured, interrogated by foreign soldiers from Israel and that he had received several injections for two days without his consent while in custody.

Speaking through an interpreter Mohamed claimed that the security officers who were guarding him did not understand his language and from their complexion they were not Kenyans and claimed they were Israelis.

The case would be mentioned on July 9 and the hearing is set for 23 the same month.