Fazul hid in Malindi, officer tells the court

The most wanted suspect in the 1998 US embassy and 2002 Paradise Hotel bombing cases was hiding in Malindi towards the end of July 2008, a court was told.

Chief Inspector Martin Otieno, the officer in charge of the Anti-Terrorist Police Unit (ATPU) in Malindi at the time, told senior principal magistrate Lillian Mutende that he had received intelligence reports that Harun Fazul was hiding in Malindi.

Testifying in a case in which three family members are facing charges of hosting the al-Qaeda mastermind, Mr Otieno said it was not mere suspicion that Fazul was hiding in the area.

“I don’t know if Fazul had been seen, it is not correct that Fazul had not been seen in Malindi when the report was made,” said Mr Otieno upon cross-examination by defence counsel Yusuf Abubakar.

The witness said Fazul knew how to hide and that an ordinary person was unlikely to trace him. Mr Otieno, who is currently attached to ATPU Mombasa, said reports indicated that one of the accused, Mr Ibrahim Mahfudh, was sending e-mails on behalf of Fazul.

In his evidence in chief, led by prosecutor Dominic Mate, the witness said he positioned several officers in places where they could find Mr Mahfudh.

Mr Otieno said that he believed by getting Ibrahim they would end up finding where Fazul was. He said that on August 2, 2008, he was alerted that Mr Mahfudh had entered a cyber cafe in Malindi and was leaving.

The witness said he did not know Mr Mahfudh and that other officers arrived at the cyber cafe and gave chase to the accused, who was riding a bicycle.

“He resisted arrest but we managed to subdue him and recovered a flash disc in his pocket,” said Mr Otieno, adding that they took him for interrogation.

Mr Otieno said Mr Mahfudh’s father, Mr Mahfudh Ashur, went to Malindi Police Station to inquire about his son and was also arrested. The court heard that they went to Mr Mahfudh’s house at 9pm in a group of about 60 police officers.

They surrounded the house before knocking on the door, Mr Otieno said. In the house they found Ms Luftiya and her 10-year-old daughter. The officer said the search in the house took about five hours.

Mr Otieno further told the court that Fazul was not found at the house of the accused and is yet to be arrested. Mr Mahfudh Ashur Hemed, his wife Luftiya Abubakar Bashrahil and their son Ibrahim Mahfudh Ashur are alleged to have hosted Fazul on unknown dates between December 2007 and August 2, 2008.