High Court reduces jail term for two Garissa University terror attack convicts

Two terror convicts linked to the 2015 Garissa University attack will now serve 25 and a half years behind bars instead of 41, the High Court in Nairobi has ruled.

Justice Cecilia Githua, in a virtual ruling on Friday, dismissed an earlier court directive to sentence Mohamed Abdi Abikar and Hassan Eddin Hassan to 15 and a half years in prison each for allegedly being members of the outlawed terror group Al-Shabaab.

According to Justice Githua, the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the pair were members of Al-Shabaab; as such their 2019 sentencing, where they were sentenced to 41 years, was done illegally.

The court however upheld the duo's conviction for conspiring to commit terror which saw them sentenced to 25 and a half years in prison.

In her ruling, Justice Githua noted that terrorism is a grave crime that possess a serious threat to both national and global security adding that circumstantial evidence by the prosecution left no doubt that the two were aware of the said plan and that they were the actual perpetrators of the attack.

"There's no reason to disturb the sentences against them ...they are accordingly upheld," the court noted

In the initial 2019 sentencing, Abikar and Hassan were jailed for 41 years as they were considered first offenders since they did not have any prior cases in court.

Another accused person, Rashid Charles Mberesero, was however sentenced to life imprisonment since he was found at the scene of the crime.

“The (fifth) accused person had indicated he was going to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia and he was found at the scene of the crime. I sentence him to life imprisonment for committing a terrorist act,” ruled Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi then.

“I have noted that the two accused persons (first and second) are remorseful, they were not found at the scene of the crime and were arrested at different places in Garissa and Mandera. Evidence against them does not make them principal offenders but secondary offenders.”