The Director of Public Prosecution has urged the High Court to dismiss an appeal by two terrorists sentenced to a total of 51 years for the 2013 Westgate Shopping Mall terror attack which claimed the lives of 67 people.
Through Senior Principal Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu, the DPP told Justice Grace Nzioka to dismiss the appeal by Mohammed Ahmed Abdi and Hussein Hassan Mustafa dismissed for lack of merits.
Ondimu said that the prosecution has discharged its burden taking into account all the evidence on record against the two.
“The prosecution evidence was not in any way discredited by the defense during cross-examination. The trial court rightly convicted the appellants,” Ondimu added.
The convicts claim that sentences meted were harsh and excessive. Abdi was sentenced to 18 years while Mustafa was sentenced to 33 years in jail.
Ondimu argues that Abdi and Mustafa have not stated the reason why they are of the opinion that the sentence was harsh and excessive in their submissions.
He added that the defense during cross-examination and their submissions sought to point out that there were several contradictions and inconsistencies in the Prosecution’s case.
“We do submit that there were no contradictions nor inconsistencies and even if they were there, they are minor and do not go to the root of the prosecution case hence this Honourable Court should ignore them,” Ondimu submitted.
Ondimu has urged Justice Nzioka to uphold the decision of trial Magistrate Court to jail the appellants.
