Kenyan court charges four over Westgate Mall attack

Four Somali men charged with terrorist offences for helping militants linked to Al Qaeda carry out an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that killed 67.

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NAIROBI // A Kenyan court charged four Somali men yesterday with terrorist offences for helping militants linked to Al Qaeda carry out an attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people.

Few details have emerged so far about the how the September attack was masterminded or how gunmen held off Kenyan security forces for four days in the Westgate Mall.

The Somali militant Islamist group Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the assault on the mall.

US, British, Israeli and other experts joined Kenyan investigators at the site of the attack, which struck at the heart of east Africa’s biggest economy. The West sees Kenya as vital to the regional fight against militant Islam.

All the men who appeared in court yesterday were formally charged with “commission of a terrorist act” under Kenya’s antiterrorism laws. Other accusations ranged from providing support and shelter to the gunmen to using false documents.

The suspects all pleaded not guilty at the hearing.

The men were named as Mohamed Ahmed Abdi, Liban Abdullah Omar and Hussein Hassan, while a fourth was identified as Adan Mohamed Ibrahim, although he was listed as using other aliases.

* Reuters