THE state wants a terror case shifted from the Mombasa chief magistrate’s court to the Shanzu law courts for security reasons.
Khadija Abdulkadir, Maryam Aboud, Umulkhayr Abdulla and Halima Ali were charged last month with being members of al Shabaab.
The Shanzu law courts are “a few steps away” from the Shimo la Tewa prison, where the suspects are being held, Director of Public ProsecutionS Keriako Tobiko said yesterday.
Through prosecutor Eugene Wangila, the DPP asked the court to allow his request since the case is “very sensitive and needs a lot of security”.
The four suspects were charged on May 6 after 30 days of investigations.
They denied the charges before Mombasa senior principal magistrate Richard Odenyo.
Abdulkadir, Aboud and Abdulla denied committing a crime as al Shabaab members on March 27 in Elwak, Mandera county, on the Kenya-Somalia border.
Ali denied committing a crime as an al Shabaab member on April 3 on the Kyumvi-Nairobi road, Machakos county.
Defence lawyers Hamisi Mwadzozo and Chacha Mwita urged the court to release their clients on bail, pending the hearing of the case.
They said it is their clients’ right to be released on bail.
Mwadzozo and Mwita said the constitution provides that any accused person has a right to freedom like any other Kenyan.
“The accused persons have links as far as Syria and Sudan and, if released, might not appear in court for the proceedings,” Wangila said.
The four were denied bail.
The prosecution promised to fast-track the case since the accused persons would be in custody.
Chief magistrate Susan Shitubi directed that the matter be heard by Odenyo but at the Shanzu law courts, as the prosecution had requested.
The case will be heard on July 16.
