Tuesday October 6, 2020
Heavy smoke is seen from the site of the terrorist attack, Westgate Mall, on September 23, 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo by Wiiliam Oeri/Nation Media/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
The sentencing of three suspects linked to a terrorist attack in Kenya in September 2013 will be delivered on Tuesday, a court in the capital Nairobi ruled.The sentencing was due to be handed out on Monday but the court postponed it, local media reported.
Chief magistrate Francis Andayi said Monday that the judgment was not ready for delivery as some sections needed to be tied up, the Daily Nation reported.This is the most time the sentencing has been postponed. One of the other postponements occurred in September 18 pushing forward the sentencing to October 5.
Hussein Hassan Mustafah, Liban Abdullahi Omar and Mohamed Ahmed Abdi were arrested in the weeks after the attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi. A number of charges were brought against them including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, aiding a terrorist group and being in the country illegally. A fourth suspect had previously been set free.
At least 67 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in the attack which was claimed by the Somalia-based terror group Al-Shabaab.
The gunmen behind the attack are suspected to have died when the Kenyan military took control of the mall.
Though the incident happened seven years ago, prosecutors had spent more than five years collecting evidence against the suspects, partly due to more than 145 witnesses offering to give testimony.
(With input from agencies)