NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 18 – The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has lodged an appeal at the High Court to challenge a decision in which alleged ivory kingpin Feisal Ali Mohammed was released on bond by a magistrate’s court.
Mombasa Senior Principal Magistrate Justus Kituku freed Mohammed on a Sh10 million bond earlier on Wednesday.
While granting Mohammed the bond, Kituku said the constitution provided him with the right to be released on bond to seek medical attention.
“The court hopes the accused has learnt his lesson and that he has known the world is a global village. You can run away but you cannot hide. The accused must inform this court of his intentions to travel outside the jurisdiction of this court,” Kituku warned Mohammed as he also cautioned him to adhere to the conditions given to him.
He was ordered to surrender his travel documents to the Criminal Investigation Department in Mombasa where he will report every Thursday after the prosecution lost its bid to have him detained without bail.
Prosecuting State Counsel Alexander Muteti had argued that Mohammed was running away from justice since he knew the charges he was facing in Kenya.
He described the suspect as a very able man financially and could easily abscond the way he did after the police seized a haul of ivory from a motor vehicle shop in Tudor.
Mohammed was arrested by Interpol agents in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on December 23 last year.
His arrest came after the International Police Organisation put his name on a list of nine most wanted suspects linked to crimes against the environment.
Mohammed was alleged to be in possession of elephant tusks weighing more than two tonnes that were found during a raid in mid last year.
Two of his accomplices Abdul Halim Sadiq and Ghalib Sadiq Kara were arrested at the time.
On December 24, 2014, five police officers including Mombasa DCIO Ndumba Thangarani appeared in court for their involvement in supervising the tampering of evidence in the case involving Mohammed.
They were accused of raiding Fuji Motors in Tudor where 314 pieces of ivory were seized.
Conservationists have expressed concerns that Kenya is losing elephants and rhinos with estimates that there are less than 38,000 elephants in the country compared to the more than 160,000 elephants the country had in 1989.
On March, 3 President Uhuru Kenyatta set ablaze 15 tonnes of elephant tusks in efforts to fight poaching in Kenya.
In July 1989, former President Daniel arap Moi ignited 12 tonnes of ivory in Nairobi.
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