Saturday, March 29, 2014
A Mombasa court on Thursday (March 27th) awarded Muslim cleric Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, known as Makaburi, 670,000 shillings ($7,700) in compensation and special damages after the High Court ruled that a police raid on Makaburi's home violated his constitutional rights.
Makaburi sued the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko after the 2011 police raid, claiming it was unlawful because the warrant did not give a justifiable reason for the search nor specify which items should be seized, Kenya's Capital FM reported.
High Court judge Maureen Odero said police who carried out the raid contravened the Criminal Procedure Code. "It is illogical, unreasonable and unjustified for the police who conducted the search to seize items which were not covered in the search warrant," she said.
Makaburi was arrested in 2010 after a grenade attack on a Nairobi bus and faces numerous charges including membership of a terror group and inciting violence after rioting in Mombasa last year.
Tobiko is in the process of applying to transfer Makaburi's case to Shimo La Tewa Prison for security reasons, according to Kenya's Daily Nation.