Rogo's widow appeals 10-year jail sentence

The widow of slain Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo, Hania Sagar, has appealed against the ten-year prison sentence handed to her last week by a Mombasa court.

Mrs Sagar was found guilty of failing to give information about a terrorist who attacked a police station in Mombasa two years ago.

Mrs Sagar described the sentence by the Senior Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache as “illegal, harsh and excessive” adding that she was jailed on the basis of “incurable defective charge that did not disclose an offence know to law” or one that “did not accord with evidence adduced”.

PROVE

“That the learned magistrate erred in law and in fact in convicting the appellant when the prosecution did not lead any evidence to prove the offence charged to the standard required in law,” added the appellant.

She further accused Ms Mochache of convicting her “by taking into account irrelevant and extraneous matters, unsubstantial personal insinuations, assumptions, presumptuous theories, analysis and speculative conclusions that were never supported by evidence or testified upon by any witnesses nor canvassed by the prosecution during submission or noted by the court  during trial".

While delivering the judgement, the magistrate said Mrs Sagar was in constant communication with three slain terrorists who attacked Central police station on September 11, 2016.

Tasnim Yakub, Ramla Abdirahman Hussein and Maimuna Abdirahman were killed after a foiled attack at the police station.

In the appeal, Mrs Sagar argued that she was sentence on the basis of offence committed by the three women.

Ms Sagar stated her sentence was based on an assertion that she was a co-accused to the three deceased girls yet under the law, no charges can be preferred against the dead.

She further stated that the charge of committing a felony, preferred against her “legally collapsed and rendered unsustainable” after the magistrate court acquitted her other co-accused Ms Luul Ali Tahli, Ms Nasteho Ali Tahli and Ms Zamzam Abdallahi - relatives of the three slain girls - rendering her the lone accused.

HIGH COURT

She accused Ms Mochache of failing to critically evaluating prosecution evidences and convicting her on non-existence circumstantial evidence by shifting the burden of proof to her thereby “watering down the legal standard of proof”.

Mrs Sagar is requesting the High Court to review her acquittal of two offences of failure to disclose information under section 98(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code and instead acquit her under section 215 of the same.

Mrs Hania also wants her conviction on the charge of conspiracy to commit a felony be reviewed and quashed and the 10-year jail term reviewed, reversed and set aside.