Widow of slain Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo wants to be freed on bond

Wife of slain Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo, Hania Sagar, who is serving a 10-year jail term, is seeking to be released on bond pending hearing and determination of her appeal.

Ms Sagar, who was found guilty of conspiring with three slain women to attack Central Police Station in Mombasa, also wants her jail term suspended.

GUILTY

She was convicted and sentenced by Shanzu senior principal magistrate Diana Mochache last month.

Through lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, Ms Sagar says her appeal has an overwhelming chance of success.

“The applicant is ready and willing to abide by all the terms of bond the court shall set and it is in the interest of justice and fairness that the orders sought be granted,” said Mr Mureithi in the application.

In her petition, Ms Sagar wants her conviction on the conspiracy charge be reviewed and quashed.

She also wants the sentence meted on her reviewed, reversed and set aside. Ms Sagar argues that Ms Mochache erred in law and fact by convicting her on a defective charge that did not disclose an offence.

She also argues that the magistrate erred in convicting her when the ingredients of the offence were missing, inadequate or not proved.

“The magistrate erred in law and fact in convicting the appellant when the prosecution did not provide any evidence to prove the offence to the standard required by law,” argues Ms Sagar’s lawyer.

According to Ms Sagar, the magistrate erred in convicting her by relying on inadmissible, unreliable, improper and inconsistence evidence of the prosecution witnesses.

She also argues that in discharging her on two counts relating to offences of failure to disclose information after they had been admitted and subjected to a trial instead of acquitting her, the magistrate erred in law.

Ms Sagar also faulted the magistrate for convicting her in the offence of conspiracy to commit a felony by failing to comprehend that upon acquittal of her co-accused, the charge collapsed and was rendered unsustainable against her.

APPEAL

She also argues that the magistrate erred in convicting her by generating evidence in her judgment compromising the role of the court as an impartial arbiter thereby depriving her fundamental right to a fair trial before an independent and impartial court.

“The magistrate erred in law and fact in convicting the appellant against the weight of evidence,” says  Ms Sagar lawyer.

She wants charges on the two counts of failure to disclose information be reviewed, set aside and substituted with an order of acquittal under Section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Ms Sagar had been accused of conspiring with Tasnim Yakub, Ramla Abdirahman Hussein and Maimuna Abdirahman to attack the police station on September 11 2016.

Yakub, Hussein and Abdirahman were killed in the foiled attack.

Justice Asenath Ongeri directed the case to be mentioned on April 5.