Court grants bail to Iranian terror suspects

A Nairobi court has granted two Iranians suspected of terrorism a Sh 2 million cash bail each and Kenyan sureties of Sh 5 million each pending their trial.

The terms of their bail include telling the Police Commissioner there residence for purpose of surveillance and their security. They should also report to the investigating officer twice a week until the case is completed.

The case will be heard on July 23.

While granting the bail, magistrate Paul Biwott of the Milimani Law Court said the constitution does not discriminate on Kenyans and non-Kenyans.

The two, Mr Ahmad Abolafathi Mohammed and Mr Sayed Mansour Mousa, were found with 15 kilogrammes of RDX explosives on June 19 during a swoop on Mama Ngina Drive, Mombasa. (READ: Terror suspect leads police to bomb material)

RDX is a more powerful chemical than TNT, which is widely used in making conventional bombs. It was TNT that the attackers of the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam used, pointing to the potency of the material seized from the two Iranians.

The amount of RDX recovered in Mombasa is enough to make a bomb that can bring down a multi-storey building, a detective involved in the investigations told the Nation.

America’s Associated Press reported that the two are believed to be members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, an elite and secretive unit that acts against foreign interests.

The UK’s Daily Telegraph reported that Iran might attack Western and Israeli targets in various countries in retaliation for a spate of assassinations of nuclear scientists in the country, which it blames on Israel

It further reported that the pair toured Nairobi surveying the British High Commission, the Israeli embassy and a church in the week before their arrest.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Iranian terrorism knows no borders” and, alluding to the events in Kenya, added:

“After Iran sent its agents to murder the Saudi ambassador on US soil, the country has now engaged in attacks in Azerbaijan, Bangkok, in Tbilisi, in New Delhi, and now we have just discovered a plot for a terrorist attack in Africa.”

When they were presented in a Nairobi court the Iranians said they had been interrogated by agents of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.

The Iranian embassy in Nairobi denied that the two were part of a Tehran-sponsored terror network that planned attacks on Israeli interests.