Foreigners used Kenya to fan terrorism, report says

Friday, July 19, 2013

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Belgian judicial authorities have released a report showing three suspected terrorists held at Shimo la Tewa Prison in Mombasa used Kenya to establish a cell of European and North African jihadists in Somalia.

The report circulated by Interpol across the world showed the foreigners are wanted to answer 32 charges related to joining al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, recruiting and fundraising for the groups.

Mustapha Bouyabaren, Ben Abdalla Ismail and Rachid Benomari were sentenced to a year in jail on Friday after being arrested at a house in Malindi a few days earlier. They pleaded guilty to the charge of illegal entry and stay in Kenya.

On Saturday, Coast provincial prisons commandant James Kodieny told The Standard the three had been taken to Shimo la Tewa Prison.

The Standard has established that the trio first came to Kenya in the company of Hassan Kafi in 2011, a wanted terrorist in Belgian custody arrested in Kenya the same year, according to an Interpol report dated July 5.

Besides Kafi, the trio left Belgium for terrorism missions in Somalia with “an Algerian national later identified as Mohamed Said”. According to Interpol, Mohamed Said is Mustapha.

Together, the four embarked on jihadist missions in April 2011 that took them to the Middle East before they entered Kenya through Tanzania.

32 charges

The detainees are now being linked to Kafi, who was “intercepted by Kenyan authorities on May 1, 2012 as he was attempting to leave Somalia to enter Kenya”. A second group of jihadist that had tried to enter Somalia through Turkey but failed were intercepted in France and are in a Belgian jail.

Much of the links were retrieved by telephone intercepts authorised by a magistrate on Rachid’s wife Berrou Loubna.

The report, which was brought to court in Malindi last Friday, shows Kafi admitted to membership of al-Shabaab and fought in the war-torn nation.

Before reaching Kenya, the report shows the four left Belgium together and used a circuitous route and several aliases through Bulgaria, Turkey before entering Kenya through Tanzania. It is not clear how Mustapha, Ben Abdalla and Rachid escaped a dragnet in which Kafi was captured.

The Standard has established that Kafi and other foreigners, including a Tunisian, were arrested and charged in Mombasa with terrorism-related charges in May last year, but were set free after Belgian authorities intervened.

The Interpol report, which was brought to the Malindi court with facilitation of Belgian embassy in Nairobi, shows that the country’s government has issued several international arrest warrants against the suspects, including Kafi who Kenya, secretly, ordered deported back home in May last year, to face 32 charges, including belonging to al-Qaeda and Al Shabaab.

Reports show that Kafi and the other foreigners were, eventually deported last August after cases against them were withdrawn.

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