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| Africa Horn | |
| Kenya frees 8 Muslim clerics suspected of recruiting youths for Shaboobs | |
| 2015-10-11 | |
| NAIROBI, Kenya – A Kenyan court has set free 8 of 12 Muslim clerics who were arrested in Kenya’s northeastern town of Mandera on Tuesday. The 12 clerics who were arrested by a Kenyan Anti-Terror Police Unit were suspected of radicalizing and recruiting youths for the al-Shabab militia group in Kenya’s Muslim dominated North Eastern region. Local media reported that the Anti-Terror Police Unit had approached the court on Thursday to ask the court to release the eight. “We want them to be reporting at the offices to aid investigations that are still underway for the remaining four suspects and we have considered their constitutional rights and by this fact, we came to court before the five days granted on Tuesday expired,” the Daily Nation website quoted police as saying.
The clerics were arrested in a mosque in Mandera, a town near the border with Somalia that has been the site of intense militant activity. Last year, 28 teachers were killed by al-Shabab in Hareri on the town’s outskirts. The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims’ Director General Abdul Latif told Anadolu Agency on Friday that the Anti-Terror Police Unit had given in to “pressure” by Muslims in Kenya. “We have always called for justice and fair treatment; we told them that if the Muslim clerics are innocent then they should be released immediately without them suffering,”Latif said. “They did just that, racial profiling of Muslims as terrorists should stop, we want the government to stop this.” | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 search for moderate muslim cleric continues...... |
| Posted by: paul 2015-10-11 13:12 |