Terror suspect shocks court with guilty plea

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Terror suspects Abdimajid Yassin Mohamed alias Ali Hussein (left) and Omar Abdi Adan alias Salman Abdi (right) listen to the charges filed against them on the 17th of September 2012. They were found in Eastleigh with four improvised explosive vests, which were approximately 30kgs heavy, among other weapons. Ali Hussein pleaded guilty to five of the ten counts filed against him. Photo\Emma Nzioka  

By VINCENT AGOYA vagoya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, September 17  2012 at  14:03

A self-confessed member of the Al-Shabaab terror group found in possession of an arsenal of arms in Nairobi will undergo a psychiatric examination before a court rules on his fate.

Mr Abdimajid Yassin Mohammed alias Ali Hussein shocked a parked courtroom on Monday when he pleaded guilty to nine charges linking him to terrorism.

He was charged alongside Mr Omar Abdi alias Adan Salman Abdi, a Somali, who denied being a member of banned group but confessed to being in Kenya illegally.

Mr Yassin was warned several times of the penalty that awaited him, but he smiled confidently maintaining the accusations were true.

At one time he told the magistrate to "put a tick" against the charges - meaning he understood their import and had pleaded guilty.

Magistrate Lucy Nyambura ordered Mr Yassin be examined before the case resumes on September 20.

"By the the demeanour displayed in court I would want a psychiatric report compiled before the facts of the case are read out," the magistrate ruled.

The duo were arrested in a police operation in the city's Eastleigh estate last week as police issued an alert that members of the Al Shabaab had been dispatched in town and were getting ready to carry out deadly attacks including assassinations in the country.

Mr Yassin told the court police arrested him on September 14 along Eastleigh's 4th street second avenue and found him in possession of a cache of firearms including four suicide vests fitted with remote controlled buttons.

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The court heard he was found in possession of the improvised explosive vests weighing 30 kilograms, four AK 47 assault rifles bullets and grenades.

He said he was a member of the Al-Shabaab and caused laughter in court by adding that - by the weapons found in his possession- he "could even be more than" a member of terror gang.

On a charge stating he was found illegally in Kenya, Mr Yassin said the police were wrong.

"I am a Kenyan I was born here," he said, but his suspected accomplice pleaded guilty to the charge.

Mr Omar Abdi said he was a Somali and was unlawfully present in Kenya at the time the police stormed their hideout in Eastleigh.

Mr Yassin and Mr Omar are held at the inland container depot police station in the city's Industrial area.

Prosecutor Onesmus Towett said the court may have to relocate to view the cache of weapons that were seized as exhibits should the suspect maintain his plea.

The court heard that the weapons were found in a house the men had rented in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate.

They included four improvised suicide bomb vests, 12 hand grenades, four AK-47 assault rifles, 480 rounds of ammunition and two home-made bombs.

Eight suspects believed to be part of the syndicate are still on the run, according to the police.

The arrests were made at 1am on Friday by a crack squad of the Special Crime Prevention Unit backed by their anti-terrorism counterparts.

The suspects reportedly did not put up resistance when the officers surrounded the storey building, knocked at their door and ordered them out.

A police report stated the recovered suicide bomber vests were similar to the ones used in the July 2010 bombings in Kampala, Uganda, in which 76 people died and many more injured.