A Mombasa court has acquitted three women accused of being members of Al-Shabaab. The three had also been charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist attack in the country.
Chief Magistrate Evans Makori ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the alleged membership to the terror group or even that the videos the suspects were found with were to be used to instigate terror activities.
“Other than extreme graphic contents of the accused mobile phones and other electronic devices, there were no other items ordinarily used for commission of a terror attack,” Mr Makori ruled.
The magistrate noted that prosecution failed to link Ms Halima Adan, Ms Ummulkheir Sadri Abdalla and Ms Khadija Abubakar Abdulkadir to the militants or even that they were en route to Somalia to join the group.
Mr Makori said that the prosecution did not tell the court the Al-Shabaab base where the suspects were allegedly going to when they were arrested at El-Wak in Mandera in 2015.
He dismissed prosecution evidence that the suspects had communicated with the militants in Somalia to plan a terrorist attack in Kenya. “Prosecution having failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, the accused are acquitted of all the charges unless lawfully held,” he said