Travellers and airport officials at JKIA. [Photo/Standard Media]Four men accused of carrying out a terror attack at Java restaurant at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on February 16, 2014 using an Improvised Explosive Device have been acquitted.
Hassan Abdi Mohammed, Mohammed Osman Ali, Yusuf Warsame and Garad Hassan Fer whom the police said belonged to the Al Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab were acquitted by trial magistrate Roselyn Oganyo for lack of sufficient evidence.
While the police say they were directly linked to the explosion, the prosecution said that the police failed to prove each of the charges facing them beyond any reasonable doubt, a constitutional threshold required for convicting criminal charges.
“Having considered the evidence adduced before court I find that the prosecution failed to prove its case against each of the accused persons beyond any reasonable doubt,” she ruled.
The magistrate acquitted them of more than 12 counts they faced including being unlawfully present in the country and being in possession of explosives.
The four had denied the offenses leveled against them by the police who said they were believed to be members of the Al Shabaab terror group.
The then Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo initially reported that the blast was caused by a loose light bulb that fell, causing some fire but preliminary investigations later pointed to an IED that was inside the abandoned luggage.