When police, Supreme Court foiled Iranians' terror plot

Few people had noticed the two Iranian terrorists when they arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as ordinary tourists on a Tuesday evening, June 12, 2012.

But Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad, travelling on an Iranian passport no. V201292677, and his counterpart Sayed Mansour Mousavi — holder of passport no. V23950958 — were not up to any good. They were terrorists, deadly bombers.

With his rimless eye-glasses and neatly-cut balding hair, Mohammad would have passed for a corporate executive.

His counterpart Sayed Mansour Mousavi, spotting typical rimless eyeglasses that hung on a lanyard, cut the figure of a suave pensioner, innocent and harmless.

Had intelligence officers not intercepted the two in Nairobi — hundreds of innocent Kenyans would be dead by now.

CASTLE ROYAL

Had the Supreme Court not overturned the order by the Court of Appeal to let them go, both would be in Tehran wallowing in luxury, hubris and self-conceit.

This is the story of how Kenya came close to a deadly terror attack whose only equivalent would have been the August 7 1998 simultaneous attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which left more than 200 people dead.

According to their travel documents, Mohammad and Mousavi were to spend 10 days in the country and had been booked to stay in Mombasa’s 68-room Castle Royal Hotel, where they had checked in on the midnight of June 12, 2014, after taking a domestic flight from Nairobi.

But on arrival in Nairobi, they had called a Kenyan who had been placed on security watch by the intelligence over suspected links with Somalia terrorist group Al-Shabaab.

On June 14 at the Castle Royal, they asked for a taxi to take them to various tourist sites in Mombasa.

SCOUTING

At first, they were taken by taxi driver Dennis Kamanga to the 23-year-old Moorings Restaurant in north coast – a floating bar and restaurant in Mtwapa Creek with a capacity of 100 revellers.

They were then taken to a Hindu temple, Jomo Kenyatta beach – the only public beach in Mombasa – and later to Haller Park in Bamburi.

Intelligence officers believe that the mission was to scout for various locations where they could exert maximum damage and casualties.

It now appears that the two Iranians knew some parts of Mombasa – or they had been briefed.

On the way back from Haller Park, a rehabilitated quarry that is today a wildlife sanctuary in Bamburi, they asked the taxi driver to take them to Mama Ngina Drive – which passes through an exotic spot frequented by hundreds of people, thanks to the sea breeze.

TAXI DRIVER

Mama Ngina drive, now renamed Azania Drive, also traverses the 9-hole Mombasa Golf Club, and that is where the two wanted to alight.

The two terrorists walked to the golf course, about 300 metres away. And after about 10 minutes they returned to the car, and were driven back to Castle Royal.

What we now know is that the two terrorists returned to the golf course on June 15 at about 6.30pm when they were seen by a golfer, Simon Mwangi.

The two were next to the tee box on the 9th hole, and when Mwangi asked them what they were doing, they answered, “We are just looking.”

Who they met or what they were doing would only be known later. On the following morning, June 16, they asked the receptionist to get them the same driver.

They said they wanted to visit Shimba Hills, a national reserve located some 33km south of Mombasa.

MANHUNT

But this appeared to be a ruse for, on the way, they asked to be taken back to Mombasa Golf Club – but they did not alight from the car.

The taxi driver dropped them at Darfus for lunch at about 1.00pm. He later picked them at Royal Castle Hotel for the airport at 3.00pm.

Although they had booked to stay at Royal Castle for 10 days, they left after only four days and flew to Nairobi and checked in at the Laico Regency.

By this time, the intelligence had got wind of the presence of two Iranian terrorists in Nairobi and had started a manhunt.

In Mombasa, they found that the two men had checked out of Royal Castle and they followed them to Nairobi.

On June 19, perhaps aware that police were after them, they checked out of Laico Regency and boarded a taxi to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, ready to leave the country.

Before they could reach the airport, however, Anti-Terrorism Police Unit officers intercepted them.

REVENGE MISSION

The arrest of the two terrorists, described by intelligence as members of Iran’s secretive Quds corps tasked to revenge the killing of the country’s nuclear scientists by Israel, alarmed Tehran, which hired legal representation.

Meanwhile in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned of Iran’s “intention to perpetrate attacks on African soil”.

Whether Kenya had relied on Mossad — Israel’s intelligence agency — to arrest the two is not known, although Kenya and Israel are known to share intelligence briefings for decades now.

After their arrest, the two were flown to Mombasa where they showed detectives where they had buried some 15 kilogrammes of RDX explosive – inside Mombasa Golf Club.

According to the Times of Israel, and quoting the country’s intelligence sources, another 85 kilogrammes of explosives were also shipped to Kenya as well, though the men did not give police details on where the explosives were.

KIKAMBALA ATTACK

Several resorts on Kenya’s coast are Israeli-owned. And in 2002 terrorists bombed Israeli-owned Kikambala luxury hotel near Mombasa, killing 13 people.

The militants also tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner at the same time.

Shortly after they were charged, their lawyer told the court that the two were “investors” and that their arrest would harm Kenya-Iran diplomatic relations.

Although Police Sgt Erick Opagal had asked the court, in an affidavit, to deny the two suspects bail because of the missing explosives – Principal Magistrate Paul Biwott stated that he was constitutionally required to free the suspects on bail.

“I have found that the two are not capital offenders, and even if they were the Constitution allows them bail.”

But this was quickly cancelled after the Director of Public Prosecutions challenged the decision, arguing that the bail could enable the suspects to leave the country before the case was concluded.

LIFE SENTENCE

Although the court had directed that the two should deposit their passports, it was well-known within intelligence circles that the Iranian embassy was intending to give them passports to flee. That would happen later.

On May 2, 2013, the trial magistrate convicted the appellants on all three counts and sentenced them to life imprisonment for the first count of being in possession of explosives and intending to commit a felony.

But on February 24, 2016, Justice Kimaru set aside the sentence and imposed a consolidated sentence of 15 years imprisonment.

It was during this time that Iran decided to send yet another team to secure their release.

The two were Sayed Nasrollah Ebrahimi and Abdolhosein Ghola Safafe, who were “offer legal advice” to the two terrorists.

But the two were caught in Nairobi filming the Israeli embassy in Nairobi – triggering yet another diplomatic row between Tehran and Nairobi.

SUSPECTS RELEASED

While these two were deported back to Tehran, the drama never ended there as attempts to release them continued.

At the Court of Appeal, the two who were now represented by Ahmednasir Abdullahi had been released after three judges argued that the lower courts had relied on “circumstantial evidence”, which was “so weak that it did not unerringly point to their guilt or to them as the only persons who could have placed the RDX in the golf course”.

Their release worried the intelligence community and the Director of Public Prosecutions went to the Supreme Court seeking to have the duo remain in custody pending its appeal.

The fear was that Iran was planning to squirrel them out of Kenya.

And just before the Supreme Court made its ruling, a senior Iranian diplomat booked two tickets with Qatar Airways, which were to be used to fly the duo out of Kenya illegally.

COLLABORATORS

The Anti-Terror Police Unit kept watch on three Kenyans who were allegedly involved in the plot: Mr Wesley Kiptanui Kipkemoi, Mr Shemgrant Agyei and Mr Robin Bundi Nyangaresi. They were arrested and charged in court.

State lawyer Duncan Ondimu told the court that “Information received so far shows that the three met on diverse dates with a senior diplomat at the Iranian embassy and the main discussion was how to aid the two individuals to escape”.

The court has heard that Iran was willing to spend $150,000 (Sh15 million) to ensure the two Iranians return to their home country. That case is still pending in court.

That there was an attempt to bribe some Kenyans to help release the two terrorists has soiled the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

But it was their lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi who would earn the flak from the Supreme Court.

BACK IN JAIL

Mr Abdullahi accused the court of acting as surrogates of the state to legitimise the illegal and unlawful detention of the two.

“This court is a jurisprudential train wreck!!! It is incoherent. It is unpersuasive. It is unfaithful to the Constitution, and is churning out constitutional interpretations that are, at best, counterfeit.”

He further accused the court of exercising illegitimate political power without any lawful jurisdiction over the Iranians.

He finally accused the judges of bias against the Iranians, lacking impartiality and independence.

But the Supreme Court said Abdullahi’s remarks were “condescending and offensive” – and allowed the DPP to take the terrorists back to where they belonged, in jail.

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