A Kenyan medical doctor and sympathiser of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group has been found guilty by a Nairobi court for planning the 2016 terror attack using fatal anthrax bacteria.
The effect of the biological attack that Mohammed Abdi Ali, a medical doctor based at Wote, Makueni County and his co-terrorists outside the country, were planning to use causes sickening of human cells which may result in instant death.
A judgment rendered by Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku convicted Ali after finding him guilty of five charges including being a member of a terrorist group, organising a meeting in support of terrorist groups, recruitment of members of a terrorist group, collection of information to commit a terrorist act and being in possession of articles connected to the commission of a terrorist act.
"I find that the prosecution has proved its case against Ali in respect to count 1,2,4,7 and 8 and l convict him for these counts under section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Code(CPC). I grant him the benefit of the doubt in counts 3,5 and 6 and acquit him under 215 of the CPC," ruled the magistrate.
The court however acquitted Ali's wife Nuseiba Mohammed Haji Osman alias Umm Fidda who had been charged alongside her husband on all charges relating to planning a terrorist act and being a member of a terrorist group for lack of evidence.
While convicting Ali who was a medical doctor at Wote before his arrest on April 29, 2016, Magistrate Mutuku stated that there was overwhelming evidence that he was in constant communication with other terrorists outside the country through his social media accounts namely Twitter, Gmail and WhatsApp, KIK, Threema and Telegram among others
"From the evidence of the 26 witnesses, the court concludes that the first accused person was in association with the al-Shabaab as he would disseminate the information on his various social media platforms by offering logistical assistance to ISIS, a known terrorist group.
"In his Twitter account even when the accounts were closed he would open other accounts and share Al-Shabaab materials to his followers," the Magistrate ruled.
The Magistrate also found that Ali being a member of the ISIS terrorist group, organised meetings in support of terrorists.
At one point he made a directive to one Mohamed Adbullahi Hassan alias Miski, a known terrorist, and other unidentified persons to plan for the establishment of an ISIS cell in Kenya with the help of ISIS returnees from Libya.
Ali was also convicted for possessing videos and images in his three mobile phones and laptops for use in instigating the commission of terrorist acts.
During the hearing, the State prosecutor Duncan Ondimu informed the court that the terror network linked to Ali has engaged in the active radicalisation, and recruitment of university students and other Kenyan youth into terrorism networks.
The court was informed that Ali and his accomplices outside the country were planning large-scale attacks using anthrax - a bacteria that can sicken or kill people in Kenya.
The prosecution stated that Ali's network has been facilitating Kenyan youths to secretly leave Kenya to join terror groups in Libya and Syria.
Ali’s terror network within Kenya spreads as far as the Coast region, North Rift region and Western region as well as other countries that include Somalia, Libya and Syria.
It is alleged that ISIS recruiters are known to seek out medical students across the world.
The prosecution also said that the network also included medical experts with whom they planned to unleash a biological attack in Kenya using anthrax in 2016.
Two other ISIS terror suspects namely Kiguzo Mwangolo Mgutu and Abubakar Jillo Mohammed who are linked to planning to carry out retaliatory attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa went under after Ali and his wife were arrested.
After the conviction, the prosecutor urged the court to hand down the maximum penalties provided for in the law in the five offences of which Ali has been found guilty of.
The court has ordered Ali to be detained at Kamiti Maximum Prison pending his sentence on April 22, 2024.
