Nairobi, Nov 29: Three Kenyans implicated in last year's bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa were charged with conspiracy to bomb the US Embassy in Nairobi between November 2002 and June this year, court documents said. A US Embassy building in Nairobi was destroyed by a massive car-bomb attack attributed to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in august 1998, killing 213 people, including 12 Americans.
A new, fortified embassy building was opened in March 2003 at Gigiri, in an outlying district of Nairobi that is also home to a large United Nations complex.
Mohammed Kubwa Seif, Said Saggar Ahmed, and Salmin Mohammed Khamis were charged in a magistrates court with four counts of "conspiracy to bomb the US Embassy" between November 2002 and June 2003, and also of conspiracy to bomb the same embassy in 1998.
They were also accused of conspiring to "shoot down an Israeli airliner" and "bombing the paradise hotel" in Mombasa on November 28 last year, a charge sheet stated.
State Prosecutor John Gacivih said earlier that the accused all pleaded not guilty and that their trial was due to start on January 06 next year.
Bureau Report