• Lobby says both suspects were asleep during raid; the first one could not have thrown explosive since his house was too small.
• Other suspect's house was filled with bullet holes lobby said were from the outside, they kept the only left spent cartridge as evidence against ATPU.
The Muslims for Human Rights lobby on Monday disputed police versions of the killings of a suspected terrorist and a suspected criminal by officers last week.
The human rights group said their investigations had established that police versions of the circumstances surrounding the killings were not accurate.
Last Thursday around noon, police gunned down Hamza Mohammed, 45, in Bombolulu, Mombasa.
Nyali police commander Simon Sirikwa said Mohammed defied orders to surrender and hurled a grenade at officers.
On Friday morning, Anti-Terror Police Unit officers gunned down Mohamed Rashid Mwatsumiro, 30, who they said was an al Shabaab operative.
ATPU said Mwatsumiro was linked to the murders of an Imam and a village elder in Diani early last month. Police said there was a shootout.
Sleeping suspects not a threat
However, Muhuri chairman Khelef Khalifa on Monday said there is credible evidence the officers’ lives were not threatened when they shot the two.
“In all the shootings, the deceased were ambushed sleeping in their respective houses. There was no exchange of fire based on our assessment of the crime scenes, contrary to police claims,” Khalifa said in a statement.
He said witness statements indicated that police removed Mohammed from his 8ft by 9ft single room already dead and did not confiscate any weapons or explosive materials.
“The size of the room could not permit Hamza (Mohammed) to throw such a deadly explosive. If he did, the explosion would have reduced the fully occupied residence to rubble,” Khalifa said.
Furthermore, he said, witnesses claimed Mohammed was asleep when ATPU ambushed him
The chairman said five ATPU officers had earlier flushed out Mohammed’s neighbours before they stormed his room.
He had lived in the house for more than 10 years and had separated from his wife.
“During the raid, officers ordered a neighbours’ cooking gas be put off, fearing an imminent explosion that would have been triggered by gunfire.
“One officer had a big gun. The rest, witnesses said, had pistols. All were in civilian clothes and had their bulletproof vests on,” Khalifa said.
Mohammed was shot in the back, chin and nose.
“The shooting range must have been close, based on the size of Mohammed’s room where it occurred,” the chairman said.
A detailed autopsy is due on Monday. His family inspected the body on Friday.
Surrounded house
In Kwale, Khalifa noted, ATPU officers laid siege around the compound to a home belonging to Mwatsumiro's family.
Mwatsumiro, an orphan, was alone at their three-room house that dawn, according to Muhuri.
The officers, according to the bullet holes that filled the house, had surrounded the property from all directions when they pulled triggers and lobbed teargas canisters.
“We counted at least 30 bullet holes on the outside walls. Two doors had lots of bullet holes. All these are an indication the officers were determined to end Mwatsumiro's life,” Muhuri said.
All the cartridges were picked by police after the incident.
“They, however, missed one cartridge that has since been collected and stored safely as evidence linking the ATPU to the death," Muhuri said.
Khalifa said their probe showed the officers who conducted the operation blocked villagers from viewing Mwatsumiro’s body, keeping them at bay for close to five hours.
Mohammed Khamis, a relative to Mwatsumiro, said a non-surgical post-mortem revealed a broken wrist and bullet holes in the chest, head and neck.
He was shot at least six times, Khamis said.
“There were no signs Mwatsumiro fired from inside the house he was in. Bullet holes in the doors appeared to have pierced from outside,” Khalifa said.
The outside walls were filled with bullet marks but none from inside and the authority’s justification that Mwatsumiro shot at them lacked basis, he said.
He said since only police were around the crime scene, their claim that they recovered a pistol from the house is suspect.
“We consider the two killings unlawful because ATPU had a chance of apprehending Mohammed and Mwatsumiro,” he said.
Edited by R.Wamochie