A Nairobi court yesterday struck out Noordin Haji and George Kinoti as parties in a succession case involving the widow of slain Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen.

Sarah Wairimu, who is on trial for Cohen's murder, had sought to have the Director of Public Prosecution and Director of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, respectively, enjoined in a suit in which she accused them of refusing to hand over her share of the property that the couple owned.

But Mr Haji and Mr Kinoti told Lady Justice Lydia Achode that they had no interest in the Cohen estate, and that any property in their possession was being held as potential evidence after forensic examination of the scene of crime.

"I decline to retain the two parties in this matter because they are not part of the deceased family members," ruled Justice Achode.

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Kinoti has said that Cohen was trussed up, tortured and murdered before his body was dumped in an underground water tank at his house on Farasi Lane in Lower Kabete.

Philip Murgor, Wairimu's lawyer, had earlier told the court that the DPP and DCI had illegally seized his client's matrimonial home. Murgor had said his client needed her clothes, shoes and a car parked at the house, which had been declared a crime scene.

Wairimu had also filed another application through lawyer Samora Owino seeking Sh500 million over the seizure of the family's property.

Mr Owino told the court that Wairimu and Cohen had bought the Farasi Lane property on June 7, 2000, and that it was registered in the husband's name by mutual agreement.