Mandera police granted extended custody over terror suspect

Abdikadir Hussein Noor, a terror suspect at Mandera Law Courts on November 14, 2019. He will officially be charged on Monday after police conclude investigations. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The state counsel had asked for more time arguing that police were yet to conclude investigations.
  • He is suspected to have been on an assignment in Mandera to conduct mapping of Kenya security officers’ for Al-Shabaab.
  • According to preliminary investigations, Noor, former Kenya Wildlife Service officer, left for Somalia in 2015 without a trace.

Police in Mandera have been allowed more time by a local court to hold a terror suspect before charging him.

Mandera Senior Resident Magistrate Kimani Mukabi allowed police to prefer charges against Abdikadir Hussein Noor next Monday.

Mr Charles Mogaka, the state counsel had asked for more time arguing that police were yet to conclude investigations.

Mr Noor was arrested by police officers manning the Kenya Somalia border line on November 11 and he has been in custody since then.

ILLEGAL RETURN

A charge sheet prepared by police indicates the suspect will face three charges on Monday.

He will be charged with being a member of the Al-Shabaab terror group and failing to report his departure to immigration office when he left to Somalia in 2015.

Mr Noor will also be charged with entering Kenya through a place not designated as a place of entry or exit.

He was arrested as he sneaked into Mandera from Somalia at border point three.

According to preliminary investigations, the former Kenya Wildlife Service officer, left for Somalia back in 2015 without a trace.

KWS OFFICER

It remains unclear whether he resigned from the KWS.

Available reports indicate on diverse dates between February 2015 and November 7, 2019, he has been a member of the Al-Shabaab terror group.

He has been operating from Waberi in Mogadishu since 2015 and pictures found in his possession showed him in military attire.

Other men in the photographs available on his mobile phone had their faces covered for concealment according the police report.

Mr Noor is further identified in those pictures holding a machine gun and a military radio call.

AL-SHABAAB ASSIGNMENT

In a police affidavit, he is suspected to have been on an assignment in Mandera to conduct mapping of security officers’ movements and location of vital installations.

“Intelligence reports showed the respondent was on a mission to collect information for the Al-Shabaab group to carry retaliatory attacks in Mandera and its environs,” reads the affidavit by Elija Nakeel, a police officer attached to Anti-Terror Police.

When charged, police want the suspect denied bond on grounds that he is a flight risk since all his immediate family is in Mogadishu and that he has no fixed abode in Mandera.