Court Finds Westgate Mall Attackers Guilty

A court in Kenya has found two men guilty of helping Islamist militants to attack an upmarket shopping mall in 2013. Mohammed Ahmed Abdi and Hussein Hassan Mustafa were charged with planning and committing acts of terror, as well as supporting and helping a terrorist group. The third suspect, Liban Abdullahi, was found not guilty. The Somali refugee was also acquitted of the charge of being in Kenya illegally and possessing identification documents by false presences. At least 67 people died in the assault by al-Shabab on the Westgate shopping complex in the capital, Nairobi. The state said the four militants who carried out the attack were found dead in the shopping centre’s rubble. The militants occupied the mall for four days, in one of the deadliest jihadi attacks in Kenya. A third man was found not guilty on all counts of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. The trial is the only one so far over the Westgate shopping mall attack. More than 140 witnesses testified in the case. The accused denied conspiring to commit terrorism. The presiding judge ruled that the two suspects, both Kenyan citizens, will be sentenced on 22 October.

SOURCE: BBC