An Iranian diplomat offered a Sh150 million bribe to three Kenyans to facilitate the escape of two Iranian convicts.
The Director of Public Prosecutions yesterday accused the senior diplomat at the Iranian Embassy of colluding with lawyer Robin Nyangaresi and Wesley Kiptanui and Shemgrant Agyei for an escape plan.
The diplomat’s identify was not revealed. But the DPP said he has been following orders from Tehran to ensure Kenyan authorities are not aware of Iranian government involvement.
The two Iranians — Ahmad Abolofathi and Sayed Mansour — were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2013 by a magistrates court over terrorism.
They appealed and their sentence was reduced to 15 years. The Court of Appeal later quashed their jail term, saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence to link them to the bomb-making materials recovered in 2012.
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The DPP appealed the ruling with the case now pending in the Supreme Court. Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu yesterday told magistrate Peter Ooko that the three lawyers met on diverse dates with the Iranian diplomat to discuss how help the convicts escape.
He said the meetings were at different places and that CCTV footage will be retrieved for details.
Ondimu asked the court to detain the lawyers for 30 days pending investigations. He said detectives needed time to obtain call records for the mobile numbers which were involved in the planning.
“The investigations are complex and require additional time. A number of agencies are involved including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Iranian embassy,” Ondimu said.
Electronic devices have been recovered and submitted for forensic examination but the reports were yet to be obtained and analysed.
Defence lawyer Cliff Ombeta said the state had not tabled compelling reasons to detain his clients.
“Further detention is a deliberate move to torment them as they are not a flight risk and their fixed abode is well known to police,” Ombeta said. The court will rule today on application to detain the suspects.
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