[UAH] Jermaine Grant terrorism trial beset by delays at Kenyan court
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Jermaine Grant terrorism trial beset by delays at Kenyan court
Met police officers forced to wait for days to give evidence at trial of 30-year-old Briton charged with plotting bomb attacks
An unlikely meeting took place on Monday inside a high security prison hosting over a hundred Somali pirates on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. A stocky, middle-aged man from Chelmsford in Essex, on remand for a sexual offence that he denies, encountered a young, slim man who introduced himself as being from Newham, just 20 miles from Chelmsford. The two had a brief conversation, enjoying the familiarity of each other's accent.
"It was nice. He was very confident, like he worked here", the Chelmsford man said. It wasn't until afterwards that he learned who he was speaking to. It was Jermaine Grant, a 30-year Briton charged with planning to carry out bomb attacks in Kenya. After their meeting, Grant was whisked off to Shimo La Tewa's maximum security F-block, where he was held until his trial resumed in the prison's court on Tuesday.
Grant is accused of being in possession of bomb-making materials and conspiring to carry out an attack. He looked unfazed as he stood behind steel bars flanked by six prison guards to answer the charges set before him. "True or false?" the court's clerk asked. "False", he answered each in a quiet voice.
The six crates of evidence that was carefully sifted by court officials included a birth certificate in the name of Samantha Lewthwaite. There has been much speculation about the link between Lewthwaite and Grant. Lewthwaite was married to Germaine Lyndsay, one of the London bombers who detonated a device on a Piccadilly line train on 7 July 2005 killing himself and 26 others. Police believe Grant was staying in a house rented by Lewthwaite in the coastal city of Mombasa before his arrest. Lewthwaite is wanted in Kenya for the same charges as Grant but slipped a police dragnet 18 months ago.
Defence lawyer Jared Boise on Tuesday dismissed links between Grant and Lewthwaite as "fabrications".
Three Metropolitan police officers from the UK's counter-terrorism command were also at Shimo La Tewa to give evidence against Grant, who attended Feltham young offenders' prison. But instead of being allowed to deliver their statements, the officers sat outside the high-security court in an air-conditioned vehicle on Tuesday and Wednesday, only to be dismissed late on Thursday and returned home.
This is not the first time their testimonies have been delayed; prosecutor Jacob Ondari wanted to call the Scotland Yard officers to testify nearly a year ago, "but they said they were engaged with the London Olympics", he said.
This week the officers – one detective inspector and two detective constables – could not give evidence because the prosecution claimed they had not had enough time to review their statements, citing "technical issues".
Three other local witnesses were threatened and told not to testify, according to prosecutor Jacob Ondari. Ondari said the threats were delivered by a man he believed to be Grant's co-accused, Fouad Manswab, who is on the run having broken bail. Ondari claimed Fouad visited one witness and spoke to another on the phone. "[He said] if they appear in court they will face the consequences that will befall them", Ondari said. The witnesses, who included a caretaker and a neighbour of the accused, delivered statements to a closed court on Wednesday and Thursday.
Grant was arrested in December 2011 together with Manswab and two others, Frank Ngala and Warda Breik Islam, who faced charges with him this week. Bomb-making materials, including a selection of chemicals and wire, were found at Grant's Mombasa home and seized by Kenyan police officers.
In a separate case, Grant faces five charges dating back to crimes allegedly committed in 2008. According to local media reports he was arrested trying to enter Somalia dressed as a woman and escaped with police property in a violent shootout. Charges include multiple counts of robbery with violence and escaping custody.
Prosecutors in the Mombasa case have claimed that Grant is a member of al-Shabaab, the outlawed Islamic militant group that has staged a number of deadly attacks in Somalia since its formation in 2004. It is now 18 months since Grant's trial began and, after these latest delays, nerves are beginning to fray. "My patience is running out", the magistrate, Joyce Gandani, told the court on Wednesday. She said the hearing would resume on 23 September and run for four days.
"If the court is available, we should be able to conclude the case then", said prosecutor Ondari, who hopes the British witnesses will attend.
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