Kenya: four Somalis charged with helping terrorists who attacked Westgate shopping mall

2013-11-04 7

Four Somali men have been charged with helping the al-Shabaab extremists who attacked a shopping mall, killing at least 67 people.

The four are accused of supporting a terrorist group by giving shelter to the attackers in their homes in the Somali neighbourhood of Eastleigh in Nairobi as well as being in Kenya illegally.

None of them is accused of being involved in the shooting. The Kenyan army has said all four of the attackers died during the siege.

There are still few details about how the September attack on the Westgate shopping centre was masterminded or how gunmen held off Kenyan security forces for four days during the siege.

Somali Islamic militant group Al Shabaab has said it carried out the attack in retaliation for the Kenyan army being in Somalia where it is part of an African peacekeeping force.

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

Their trial is expected to start on November 11. The men have been remanded in custody until then.