A UK
citizen suspected of being a militant Islamist has been acquitted by a
Kenyan court of robbery with violence over an incident in 2008. The
prosecution had failed to prove its case against Jermaine Grant of east
London, the court ruled. He is due to appear again in a Kenyan court on
23 September on another set of terror-related charges.
Kenyan police allege he was linked to
the widow of a suicide bomber involved in the July 2005 attacks in
London. Mr Grant has already served a two-and-half-year jail term for
being in Kenya illegally. He was tried by a court in the capital,
Nairobi, on charges related to a raid on a police station near the
border with Somalia in 2008. A gang, suspected to be made up of
militants of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, attacked the police
station, freeing Mr Grant after he was arrested for trying to cross into
Somalia, police alleged.
The gang allegedly stole four guns,
stole a police vehicle and wounded a police officer during the attack.
The court ruled that the charges against Mr Grant had not been proven.
“The prosecution has failed to establish the case against him beyond
reasonable doubt,” magistrate Kiarie Wa Kiarie told the court. Mr Grant,
who remains in custody, is due to stand trial in the coastal city of
Mombasa on 23 September after being accused of possessing explosive
materials.
Police allege that when they raided a
house Mr Grant was staying in in 2011, they found ingredients needed to
make a bomb – hydrogen peroxide and ammonium nitrate, as well as
batteries and electrical switches. Last year, Kenyan government
prosecutor Jacob Ondari alleged that Mr Grant had worked with Samantha
Lewthwaite, the widow of London Underground bomber Jermaine Lindsay, on a
bomb plot. Ms Lewthwaite is wanted by the Kenyan authorities and is
alleged to be travelling on a forged passport. Her husband blew himself
up on a London Underground train on 7 July 2005, killing 26 people.
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