The Two Iranian nationals convicted for plotting attacks against western targets in the country have been released under suspicious circumstances and deported to their country two weeks ago.
Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 for possessing a 15-kilogram (33 pound) stash of the explosive RDX which experts said was capable of bringing down the Times Tower.
They allegedly planned to attack Israeli, American, British or Saudi Arabian interests in Kenya.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment by Magistrate Kiarie Waweru and sent to the Kamiti Maximum Prison for committing acts intended to cause grievous harm and were added an extra 15 and 10 years sentence on lesser charges.
“Even as I hear the accused persons mitigating and crying for mercy, there is yet a louder cry by the blood of the previous victims of terrorist attacks, the orphan, the widow and widower due to such heinous attacks. All are crying for justice. I shudder to imagine the amount of damage that could have been seen,” Kiarie said.
Their lawyers’ plea to the judge that no harm was committed by the two convicts, despite what they were accused of were futile.
Prison authorities yesterday confirmed that the two had left Kamiti using the relevant provisions of the law.
“Their term was just about to end and they had shown themselves to be of good behavior,” George Dianga, prisons communication boss, told a local media station.
The two Iranian’s defense lawyers appealed and had their sentenced reduced to 15 years which was to run to 2027.
“The constitution says anybody, any prisoner including foreigners can petition for power of mercy. The information we have is that the prisoners were legally discharged from the prison and deported from the country because they were foreigners,” a senior official stated.
On June 1 during the Madaraka Day celebrations, former President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that he had pardoned 3,908 inmates following recommendations from the mercy committee which is not relatively clear if the two convicts were included in the list.
Prisoner pardons in Kenya are processed through recommendations of the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee established under Article 133 of the Constitution.