Kenyan court blocks deportation of suspected Somali Islamist financier

[Gabbal]

Kenyan court blocks deportation of suspected Somali Islamist financier

 

Thu Jan 11, 8:47 AM ET

 

NAIROBI (AFP) - A Kenyan court has blocked the government from deporting an elderly Somali suspected of financing the country's Islamists defeated by the Ethiopian-backed Somali government.

 

Judge Kihara Kariuki stopped the government Thursday from deporting back to his country wheelchair-bound Abubakar Omar Aden, who was arrested January 6 as he tried to flee Somalia and cross into Kenya's northeastern region.

 

The order will be in force until Monday, when Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako is expected to appear in court to defend the governments position, Kariuki ruled.

 

Aden's lawyer James Orengo said his client, who is sick, narrowly escaped death when Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops seized the capital Mogadishu from the Islamists last month.

 

"The petitioner has throughout his life maintained good and cordial relations with his countrymen and has helped the disadvantaged in the society by saving peoples lives and donating food and money particularly when there was outright civil war in Somalia," his lawyer James Orengo said.

 

Prosecutors told the court that the Kenyan government, which has closed its border with Somalia and deported hundreds of Somali refugees, had made a decision to block Islamists and their allies from entering the country.

 

Kihara ordered that Aden be admitted to hospital.

 

"Based on the reasons given by the petitioners advocate and from the grounds filed herein am persuaded to order that petitioner be admitted to hospital of his choice but should remain under guard until Monday, January 15," the judge said.

 

Aden, a wealthy cleric who controlled the El-Maan natural port in northern Mogadishu, was regarded as the financer of the Islamists who were routed from the capital last month after weeks of clashes.

 

Unlike some others in the Somali Islamist movement, Aden has never been linked to

Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

[Pi]

^^ They should free the pathetic old man.

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Pi:

They should free the pathetic old man.

What makes the man "pathetic"?

[Xoogsade]

Good question. Can Pi try some rationality and answer that? of course, with honesty.

[General Duke]

He should not be sent back, let him travel to a third country. Saudi Arabia is an option he has a Saudi passport.