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Somali suspects in Nairobi attack to seek bail
A lawyer representing four Somalis charged with helping terrorists attack Nairobi's Westgate Mall last year will, once again, petition the court to release the defendants on bail pending an April 15 court hearing.

"I don't want to anticipate the results of my application one way or the other," lawyer Mbugua Mureithi told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday. "Better wait for the final word from the court."
Oh, the suspense. Will the court order bail for four people responsible in part for the murder of dozens in a terrorist attack in a shopping mall?
"But I expect the rights of the accused persons to be released on bail to be respected by the court," Mureithi said.

The four defendants -- Hassan Abdi Mohamed, Mohamed Osman Ali, Ilyas Yusuf Warsame and Gerald Hassan Fer -- are charged with helping terrorists carry out a deadly attack on Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Mall last September that left 67 people dead.

The four men had been granted bail by a Nairobi magistrate on February 12. But Director of Public Prosecutors Keriako Tobiko immediately appealed the lower court's decision before the High Court, demanding a stay. The court subsequently ruled that the suspects should remain in custody.

Nevertheless, Mureithi asserted that his clients' trial was proceeding well.

"It's half-way. So far, so good," he said.

"Twenty of the 40 witnesses expected to be called by the prosecution have already testified," the lawyer added. "And none of them has pointed a finger at the suspects."

"We're saying -- and we shall say so before the judge --that the suspects are totally unconnected to the charges against them," he said.
Posted by: Steve White 2014-03-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=387294