Venezuelan diplomat Dwight Sagaray and three Kenyans convicted for the murder of the Venezuelan ambassador Olga Fonseca have begged the court not to sentence them to death.
Sagaray, Ahmed Omindo, Alex Sifuna and Moses Kiprotich Kalya in their mitigation on Friday told High Court judge Roselyn Korir that the court should not sentence them harshly.
The four were found guilty of conspiring to kill Olga, theLatin American country’s acting ambassador 10 years ago, at her residence in Runda estate in Nairobi.
Through their lawyers John Khaminwa and Katwa Kigen, the accused persons said they are remorseful.
Khaminwa, who represents Ahmed, said he swore using the Holy Quran that he has nothing to do with the death of Fonseca.
"Please do not kill this young man at all. His wife is in court; the bond that has brought them together is their commitment to Quran", Khaminwa told court.
The defence objected the victim impact report tabled by the probation officer by calling it a love letter.
The lawyers questioned how the report was extracted given the fact that there was language barrier between Kenya and Venezuela. The report, they said, was inadmissible because it was not signed by the maker.
"As we stand here today, there is no victim impact report before the court, we ask you to reject the report", the court was told.
However, the victim's family urged the court to sentence the convicts to the maximum sentence as per the Kenyan laws, saying they demonstrated the pain of losing their loved one.
The judge rejected the defence application to dismiss the probation report, saying the court understood the place of victim impact report.
She said the practice has always been for the probation officer to reach the victims and interview them.
"The objection to the report has no legal basis," the judge said.
Lawyer Kigen representing Sagaray told the court that even before sentencing, they had served a notice of appeal.
He said the probation report acknowledged that there was someone called Mohamed who was never apprehended and who would have shed light of the murder.
Kigen said Sagaray told the probation officer that if the ambassador had told him that she feared for her life, he would have taken all it needed to protect her.
The prosecution, however, told court that the offence is serious and law provides for the penalty of death by hanging.
" I would invite the court to consider that the court should be guided by the law in determining the sentence," the prosecution said.
Justice Korir adjourned the sentencing to be delivered on notice.
On March 10, the judge rejected a bid by Sagaray, the former first secretary at the embassy, to be released on bail pending sentencing.
While declining Sagaray's bail application, the judge noted the murder charge against him is a capital offence punishable by death or life imprisonment.
She said once released he will absolutely abscond the court to face the harsh punishment of the offence.
On January 25, Justice Korir convicted the accused. Olga was found murdered in her house and her body was lying on her bed with a wire cord around her neck, hands and legs.
Olga, 57, was manually strangled to death on July 26, 2012, less than two weeks after arriving in Kenya to head the diplomatic mission.
She replaced former ambassador Gerardo Silva, who was facing allegations of sexual harassment by male workers at the embassy.
During the trial, it emerged that four persons killed Olga as a result of a power tug of war between her and the administrator Sagaray over who was the ambassador of Venezuela.
The court found that the killers were paid Sh468,000 by a Kenyan named Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, who is still at large, to eliminate her.
The murder plot was executed after four meetings held in four hotels in Nairobi - Garden Square, Muthaiga Total Petrol station, Java Gigiri and Maggie's Pub at Kenol petrol station.
The meetings were between Hassan, Omido, Wanyonyi and Kalya, an ex-police officer who was set to join the US marines the following year.
Though there was no evidence placing Omido, Wanyonyi and Kalya at the scene of crime in Runda, the court said they were involved in the plans.
The killers had tied the body to her bed with a ligature that was around her neck in a bid to make it look like she died by suicide.
However, pathologists told the court that she had been strangled to death.
Justice Korir found that the ambassador was killed by three unknown men led by Mohammed Ahmed Hassan, the mastermind who has never been arrested. Mohammed and Sagaray were reportedly opposed to the posting of ambassador Olga to Kenya.
Korir said the evidence produced in court by the prosecution demonstrated there was an outright conflict between Olga and Sagaray. That glaring conflict provided the motive to eliminate Olga.
The court was able to deduce the hostile and acrimonious relationship between the two through the evidence from the embassy staff.
"I have found their evidence to be credible. They narrated what they saw and experienced. They have no interest in siding with either party," the judge said.
