Westgate attack suspect alleges police torture

Four Westgate terror suspects in a Nairobi court Wednesday. From left: Mr Hussein Hassan Mustafa, Mr Adan Abdikadir Mohhamed Dheq, Mr Liban Abdulah and Mohammed Ahmed Abdi during the mention of the case in which they are charged with carrying out the terrorist attack on September 21. They return to court on November 28 for bail determination.

One of the suspects in the Westgate mall attack alleges police tortured him for one month to force a confession.

Mr Adan Abdikadir Adan, a Madrassa teacher, claims in an affidavit that he is a mere scapegoat being crucified by the government for crimes he never committed.

He is among four suspected terrorists charged with carrying out the September 29 mall attack in which 67 people died and while 200 others were injured.
“I am a practicing Muslim who believes in the sanctity of human life and I had nothing to do with the murderous attack on the Westgate Mall whatsoever...” Mr Adan said in a reply to the prosecution’s objection to his release on bail pending the hearing of the case slotted to start early next year.

He said he was tortured at the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit offices where officers “strangled, and slapped him hard numerous times on the face before subjecting him to a mock electrocution with an electric wire” attached to the lower part of his neck.

He said the police officers told him he would be electrocuted to death if he did not help them identify the assailants.

“While I was in police custody I was shown CCTV footages of very clear videos of the attack on Westgate and I do not appear in any of them...I was also shown very clear pictures of persons believed to be the attackers and my picture is not among them,” he said.

The suspect said interrogators were demanding that he “helps” them identify the attackers “none of whom I (neither) knew nor have ever met in my life and I told them as much.”

He said the attack happened while I was at house in Eastleigh, Nairobi and only watched it on television. He also denies knowing one Abdikadir Hared Mohemmed who he is accused offering shelter while knowing he had participated in the attack.

“I am not a criminal and I have never carried out any terror attack anywhere in the world, I do not belong to any criminal or terrorist group and I am not a threat to anybody,” he says adding that the charges he faces are a fabrication.

RELEASING HIM ON BAIL

Lawyer Mbugua Mureithi said Mr Adan’s affidavit was laying ground for court to find reasons for releasing him on bail.

“We have raised several matters of fact which we intend to show the court who the accused really is, where he was when the attack happened as opposed to what has been said about him previously,” Mr Mbugua said.

“It also shows what he underwent while in custody for one month and traces his Kenyan ties, they are individual facts about him which are important for court in considering granting him bail, the lawyer said.

State counsel Mungai Warui who opposed the suspect’s release on bail told court the factual matters raised in the affidavit could only be replied to through filing of a further affidavit sworn by the investigators. “We will need time to respond to his reply,” Mr Warui said.

The proceedings were adjourned to November 28.