WAR AGAINST TERROR

Four Garissa varsity terror attack suspects to be sentenced today

Most of the charges are punishable by life imprisonment

In Summary

• The April 2015 terrorist attack at Garissa University left 150 people dead.

• Two of them are already convicted of being unlawfully present in Kenya.

The Garissa University terror attack suspects in court during their ruling on Tuesday, January 29, 2019. /COLLINS KWEYU
The Garissa University terror attack suspects in court during their ruling on Tuesday, January 29, 2019. /COLLINS KWEYU

Four Garissa University terror attack suspects will know their fate today when a chief magistrate makes a ruling. 

The April 2, 2015 attack on the then constituent college of Moi University left 150 people dead.

Mohamed Abikar, Hassan Edin Hassan, Sahal Diriy and Tanzanian Rashid Charles Mberesero are charged with conspiracy to kill 144 students, four security officers and two employees of the university.

 

Most of the charges are punishable by life imprisonment.

Chief magistrate Francis Andayi had early this year said the four colluded with others to attack the university. He, however, acquitted the university's watchman Hussein Osman Dagane of all the charges.

Dagane had been arrested at the facility a day after the attack for allegedly taking pictures. But the person who claimed to have seen Dagane taking pictures did not testify.

Mobile phone call data records did not establish prior communication between him and the four terrorists and four others killed by security officers at the university.

Abikar, Hassan, Diriy and Mberesero were jointly found guilty of conspiracy to kill 144 students, four security officers and two employees of the university.

Mberesero and Abikar were also convicted of being unlawfully present in Kenya. Mberesero was arrested at a mosque near the university. Detectives recovered Jihad material in his bag.

Each of the accused faced 150 charges of conspiracy to kill, being members of the terror group al-Shabaab and carrying out a terror attack. They were also convicted for being unlawfully in Kenya.

 

Students who survived the dawn attack were among the 21 witnesses who testified against them.

The exhibits included the postmortem examination reports of 125 victims.

Prosecutors Duncan Ondimu and Caroline Singei relied heavily on direct and circumstantial evidence to establish the case of a conspiracy between the suspects and four others killed during the attack.


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