Court releases ISIS suspects for lack of evidence

A Mombasa court on Friday acquitted four terror suspects accused of having links with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) for lack of evidence.

Chief Magistrate Julius Nang’ea dropped the charges and discharged Mr Ali Musa Mwadzala, Mr Mwinyi Mwambondo, Mr Khamis Hakim Bwanadi and Mr Yasin Ahmed Kipsandui after detectives failed to link them to ISIS and Al-Shabaab.

The magistrate set three of the respondents free unconditionally saying no formal terror charges had been preferred against them.

“The police having found no evidence linking the suspects to terrorism, the court therefore order their release forthwith,” the magistrate ruled.

Mr Nang’ea, however directed Mr Kipsandui to report to Diani Police station in Kwale County, once a week for a month.

This was after the prosecution said further investigations against the suspect in relation to the offence were ongoing and yet to be completed.

The charges against the suspects were dropped after office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) led by State Counsel Lydia Kagori applied to have the respondents set free after investigations were complete.

Relying on police document, Ms Kagori told the court the suspects had no links with either Al-Shabaab or ISIS as earlier claimed by the police.

“Investigations have been completed and no trace of terror activities have been detected to prosecute the suspects, we therefore apply for withdrawal of charges against the suspects,” she said.

She told the court investigations by a multi-agency security team comprising Anti-Terror Police Unit and flying squad officers failed to trace terror links to the militia group.

Also, the report of the forensic analysis of the suspects’ mobile phones, which had been taken for exploitation did not contain any trace of terror materials or link them to any terrorist group.

The suspects were arrested on October 7, at undisclosed place within Mombasa County over allegations of planning a terror attack in the country.

Police had claimed that the suspects are associates of persons who are allied to terror groups, especially ISIS.

The respondents were represented by their lawyer Chacha Mwita, who told the court that his clients were innocent.

He said it was worrying that the suspects had been arrested within the court premises after they had attended hearing of a terrorism case of one of their colleagues.

The suspects were arraigned in court after being detained for three days to pave way for completion of investigations.

While seeking for more time to finalize investigations, the police had said the respondents are believed to be involved in the offence or have information that might assist in investigations.

The investigators had also described the suspects as flight risk and capable of interfering with witnesses hence compromising the investigations.