Mombasa attack: Four to be tried

2003-06-23 22:33

Matthew Rosenberg

Nairobi - Kenya plans to charge four people with murder in connection with a November terrorist attack against Israeli tourists, officials said on Monday as pressure mounted on authorities to take action amid renewed warnings of terrorist activity in the East African country.

The four suspects will be the first people charged in connection with the attack that killed 11 Kenyans and three Israelis at a resort north of the coastal city of Mombasa.

Three of the four are tied to a man suspected of being Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an alleged al-Qaeda operative and leading suspect in the November attack as well as the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi.

The suspects were charged in March with harbouring an illegal alien - thought to be Mohammed.

But new evidence turned up by the investigation into the November attack has led officials to charge them with murder, Philip Murgor, the director of public prosecutions, told reporters.

Named three

Murgor named three of the suspects as Aboud Rogo Mohammed, Mohamed Kubwa and Kubwa Mohamed, Mohamed Kubwa's father.

Murgor refused to identify the fourth suspect and would not say whether it was Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.

The trio named by Murgor all knew Abdul Karim, who has been identified as Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.

In March, Mohamed Kubwa said that Rogo, his cousin, had introduced his family to Abdul Karim early last year and took him to the family home in Siyu, a town on Pate island near Somalia.

Abdul Karim lived in Siyu with Kubwa Mohamed and taught at an Islamic school. In December, he married the man's teenage daughter Amina. Then he disappeared in January, Mohamed Kubwa said.

Amina and Mohamed Kubwa both identified Abdul Karim as Fazul Abdullah Mohammed in an FBI photo, indicating a link between the November 28 attacks and the 1998 bombings, both of which have been blamed al-Qaeda.

Kubwa said he didn't know much about Abdul Karim, only that he had relatives in Mombasa's Tudor neighbourhood. Police believe the car bomb used in the November attack was built there.

At the time, Kubwa denied any involvement in that attack.

The four suspects could appear in court as early as Tuesday once authorities work out some unexplained "logistical problems," Murgor said.

He also said "several" other suspects had been detained and are being questioned in connection with recent warnings of a terrorist attack in Kenya. He refused to elaborate.

Terror warnings

The latest round of terrorism warnings began May 14 when Kenyan National Security Minister Chris Murungaru said Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was back in Kenya.

Later that day, the US state department urged citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Kenya.

The following day, British Airways, at the request of the British government, cancelled its daily flight between Nairobi and London because of an "imminent" threat.

Mohamed Kubwa and Kubwa Mohamed were out on bail when the alerts were released and soon after were taken back into custody.

The Pentagon raised the terrorism threat level in Kenya to "high" on Friday, prompting the US Embassy to close until at least Tuesday.

The Kenyan government also suspended air traffic between Kenya and neighbouring Somalia, a Muslim nation that has not had an effective government since 1991 and is believed to be a transit point and staging ground for al-Qaeda operatives working in eastern Africa.

US Embassy spokesperson Tom Hart said the closure was due to "new and concrete information concerning the continuing threat of terrorist activity in Kenya and East Africa."

The latest warnings have raised the pressure on Kenya - a key US ally and a regional economic, diplomatic and transportation hub - to take action.

No arrests

In an interview with the private Nation TV network last Thursday, US Ambassador Johnnie Carson criticised Kenya's anti-terrorism efforts, saying that while other countries that had been attacked by terrorists have managed to arrest suspects "in Kenya, there has not been a single arrest or conviction."

Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi said on Monday that Carson's comments prompted Kenyan authorities to announce that the four will be charged rather than quietly bringing them to court.

On November 28, assailants attempted to shoot down a chartered Israeli jet with shoulder-fired missiles as it was taking off from Mombasa's airport. The missiles narrowly missed.

Within a few minutes of that attack, suicide bombers exploded a car packed with explosives outside a beachfront hotel popular with Israelis, killing 11 Kenyans and three Israelis as well as the bombers.

A US district court indicted Mohammed in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Nairobi bombing killed 219 people and 12 died in the Tanzania blast.

- AP