Trial of Westgate attack suspects begins

Four westgate terror suspects in a Nairobi court on December 3, 2013: From left Mr Hussein Hassan Mustafa, Mr Adan Abdikadir Mohhamed Dheq, Mr Liban Abdulah and Mohammed Ahmed Abdi during the mention of the case in which they are charged with carrying out the terrorist attack on September 21. A court overruled their bail request on December 4, 2013 saying the reasons the prosecution gave while objecting to their application overrides their “individual rights and freedom.” PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU 

In Summary

• The men are not accused of carrying out the attack, but of lending support to the gunmen.
• As many as 94 could have died in the attack.
• The gunmen are understood to have totalled four and not a dozen as claimed by security forces.

By AFP
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The trial of four men charged in connection with the Westgate mall siege, that was claimed by the al-Shabaab, started on Wednesday.

A guard who was outside the upmarket mall when the gunmen launched their attack in September, killing at least 67 people, was the first witness.

The men are not accused of carrying out the attack, but of lending support to the gunmen.

Adan Mohamed Abidkadir Adan, Mohamed Ahmed Abdi, Liban Abdullah Omar and Hussein Hassan Mustafah have all pleaded not guilty to charges of supporting a terrorist group.

Witnesses who were inside the mall during the attack described how the fighters stormed into the crowded complex, firing from the hip and hurling grenades at shoppers and staff.

In court, witness Stephen Juma described how he was outside the mall directing traffic when a car pulled up and three armed men emerged.

"I began to hear gunshots, I made a radio call for help while running to the main entrance," Juma said.

"I took shelter in a residential compound until when I saw policemen come," adding that he had not seen the faces of the three men.

All the gunmen in the Westgate siege -- understood to have totalled four, not the dozen that security forces initially reported -- are believed to have died during the attack, according to security sources.

The al-Shabaab said the gunmen came from a special suicide commando brigade.

FBI ASSIST KENYA

They said it was a warning to Kenya to pull its troops out of southern Somalia, where they are fighting the extremists as part of an African Union force.

Interpol and the FBI have assisted Kenya in trying to identify four bodies believed to be those of the attackers.

However, a New York police report said the lack of concrete evidence of their death means that they may have escaped.

Two of the gunmen are named in court documents as Mohammed Abdinur Said and Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, a 23-year-old Somali who spent time in Norway.

Like the attackers, the four on trial are all of Somali origin, but it is unclear whether they are Somali or Kenyan citizens.

Western officials have suggested that as many as 94 could have died in the attack.

Bodies were buried under tonnes of rubble after part of the mall's roof collapsed at the end of the raid following an intense fire that burned for weeks.