Muslim lobby moves to court over Jamaican cleric

A Muslim rights group has gone to court seeking to compel the government to produce controversial Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal.

The chairman of the Muslim Human Rights Forum Mr Al Amin Kimanthi filed a suit at the High Court Wednesday to force the government to produce the cleric, who is on an international terror watch list for preaching hate messages.

Also sought by the activist in suit papers is an order stopping the government from deporting the cleric before the application is heard and determined.

Mr Kimanthi says the cleric entered the country lawfully and has not breached any laws to warrant either his detention nor deportation.

Mr Kimanthi sued Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang, the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General.

The cleric was first arrested by police at Nyali mosque in coastal town of Mombasa on December 31 and never allowed access to friends, says Mr Kimanthi.

The decision to hold the cleric in custody for long, he says, contradicts rights provided for under the constitution and an international human rights convention.

Mr Faisal arrived in Kenya on December 24 after travelling through Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi and Tanzania.

Mr al-Faisal, who had been deported to The Gambia last week on his way to Jamaica, was returned to Kenya on Sunday and has been held at the Industrial Area remand prison since.

According to court papers, he is also declared a prohibited immigrant without having been accorded the opportunity to be heard.

Mr Faisal says he was never presented before the immigrations department to answer any questions or even show cause why his immigration status as granted to him at the Lunga Lunga border point should not be revoked.

Mr Kimanthi argues that the continued detention without preferring any charges amount to psychological torture of the cleric.

He also accused the government of holding the man in question without any orders for his detention given by any court of law.

It is alleged that Mr Faisal who was being held at Industrial area remand has been removed and taken to an unknown place.

And unless the court intervenes, Mr Kimanthi believes, the cleric is bound to remain in indefinite incommunicado detention without any trial.