October 10-14
A Kenyan court has ordered two Iranians to serve two years in jail or pay a hefty fine after they pleaded guilty to using fake Israeli passports to enter the country last month.
The pair, a man and a woman, was arrested under the country’s anti-terrorism laws. They were suspected of being part of a plot following up on two Iranian men found with explosives and convicted last year of plotting bombings. But others thought the Iranian couple was just trying to flee Iran and get to Europe posing as Israelis.
The denouement in court did not make clear if the terrorism suspicions had been dissipated. But the fact that no terrorism charges were mentioned in court suggested those allegations had been dropped.
Kenyan anti-terrorism police arrested the two on suspicion of plotting an attack in Kenya as they prepared to board a flight at Nairobi airport on September 18 bound for Belgium.
It was also not clear whether the man and woman would avoid jail by paying the fine of 2 million shillings ($22,422) each instead.
Kenyan security agencies have been on nervous alert after several gun and grenade attacks in the year since the dramatic killing of 67 people in an attack by Islamist gunmen on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall.
Two Iranian men were sentenced to life in prison by a Kenyan court in May last year for planning to carry out bombings in Nairobi and other cities. The men have appealed against their conviction and a ruling on their appeal is expected October 14.
When the two other Iranians were arrested last month, Mwenda Njoka, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said, “The Iranians are suspected to be terrorists, either coming here as their final destination or in transit to another destination. The matter is being handled by the anti-terror police and Interpol.”
But another official told Agence France Presse it wasn’t clear if the two were terrorists or just illegal immigrants. “They are people we need to interrogate further before a decision is made about what to do next,” he said.
An airport security officer said Kenya was regularly used as a transit route for illegal migrants from the Middle East—chiefly Iran, Iraq and Syria—who are hoping to enter Europe. He said such migrants are often caught with forged passports from counties such as Greece, Cyprus and Israel.
Just last month, he said, three Iranians were arrested at the airport with forged Greek passports. They were trying to fly to London. Instead, they have been jailed for one year in Kenya.
Iranians get especially close scrutiny. Partly, that is because Kenya has close ties with Israel. But mainly that is because of the two Iranians linked to the Pasdaran who were caught plotting bombing sites in Kenya.