Police on Monday arrested a woman in Mombasa for offering to appear in court impersonating her sister who has been allegedly facing Al Shabaab and ISIS terror group facilitation charges.
Ms Abdia Abdi reportedly turned up in court on Monday posing as her sister Halima Ali who is facing terror-related charges. Halima was expected to appear in court for her final hearing over suspicions that she has been recruiting youth into the terror groups.
Even after being released on bail, Halima is said to have continued with her secret recruitment of youngsters and financing the terrorists. Detectives handling the matter arrested her in Garissa on April 9, 2018, while trying to flee the country to Somalia.
[caption caption="Ms Abdia Abdi"]
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Daily Nation reports that the suspected criminal had been attending her court cases until when she asked her younger sister Abdia to appear in court in her person.
An advocate identified as Chacha Mwita reportedly colluded with the sisters to lie to the court and let her pass as the real suspect. Abdia had covered herself in a Niqab trying to appear as her sister Halima.
Halima, according to the security details seen by the paper, “continued to aid recruits to travel to Syria and was once again put on the wanted list by the police.”
The detectives have coined in the advocate as part of the crime abettors after he allegedly asked Halima not to appear in court for the final hearing. This had seen the trio draw the botched impersonation scheme that has bred the arrest of Abdia Abdi.
“On learning that the police were again looking for her (Halima), she went into hiding in collusion with her advocate Chacha Mwita, who advised her not to appear for the court hearing but instead sent her sister Abdia to impersonate her,” the detectives stated in their files obtained by the paper.
In 2015, Ms Halima Adan Abdi, Ummulkheir, Khadija Abubakar, Maryam Said Aboud with the same advocate, lawyer Chacha Mwita also appeared before a Mombasa court over terrorism-related charges.
