Westgate suspects accuse state of Kamiti torture cover-up

Westgate terror suspects from left Hussein Mustafa, Adan Dheq, Linam Omar Mohammed Abdi in a Nairobi court on August 20, 2014 after the hearing of the case in which they are accused of assisting terrorists to carry out the attack on Westgate shopping mall in which 67 people were killed. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU

What you need to know:

  • The terror suspects claim to have suffered broken bones, dislocations and deep cuts in an incident at the Kamiti maximum prison on August 27.

Fourteen terror suspects being held at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison have accused the government of covering up their alleged torture at the detention facility.

The accusation came after the prisons department ignored a court directive to present them in court for trial on Wednesday.

The terror suspects claim to have suffered broken bones, dislocations and deep cuts during an incident at the Kamiti prison on August 27.

The suspects include four men charged in connection with the attack on Westgate shopping mall in September 2013.

Others are an Israeli and a Moroccan linked to Al-Shabaab, and a father and son held over the twin explosions on Thika Road.

Their lawyers claimed prison authorities were shielding them from the public due to the serious injuries they sustained.

'SECURITY CONCERNS'

But prison authorities, in a letter signed by Mr Henry Kisingu, the officer in charge of the prison, said they were unable to produce the suspects in court “due to security reasons.”

“There was an incident at the Kamiti maximum security prison which resulted in serious injuries on the accused persons who have not been produced in court where prison authorities cited security concerns and requested to have the matters mentioned after two weeks,” Mr Chacha Mwita said.

He said that since the prison authorities were unable to avail the suspects to court “we do hereby request to have a special mention at the Kamiti maximum prison for the court to observe the alleged injuries.”

“The two weeks sought by the prison authorities in the cases, we believe, is not done in good faith but intended to cover up the excesses perpetrated by prison officers and to shield the (suspects) from their families, who have equally been refused access to their loved ones, the public and the judicial arm of the government,” lawyer Mbugua Mureithi said.

MEDICAL ATTENTION

The suspects, the lawyers said, are held in the same block within the prison facility and by August 29 had not received proper medical attention.

Mr Jabreen Ahmed Osama, an Israeli, and Mr Mohammed Salim, a Moroccan, have been linked to Al-Shabaab and face eleven counts of terrorism.

They are serving a 12-month jail sentence each after pleading guilty to a separate charge of being found in the country illegally.

They were arrested on February 25 on the Nairobi-Kamiti road while planning terror strikes, the prosecution says.

The suspects were reportedly found collecting information for the instigation of terror attacks and that various tell-tale materials, including computer hard disks with Al-Shabaab articles, were found in their possession.

ASSISTING TERRORISTS

Mr Worqu Dejene Sar and his father, Sar Guracha Haro, are suspected to have been behind the explosions that went off in two packed commuter buses on April 4, killing three passengers.

Mr Mohammed Ahmed Abdi and three others are charged with assisting the terrorists who stormed the Westgate shopping mall on September 21, killing 67 people.

The lawyers have asked the court to treat their application with urgency “due to the prevailing circumstances and the injuries the suspects suffered.”

“For the interest of justice it is very critical and fundamental that the accused persons, who are supposed to be presumed to be innocent until the contrary is proven, to be presented before a magistrate so as to raise pertinent issues and concerns... if at all there was any breach, the law does not provide for the use of maximum force,” they said.