Iranians face terrorism charges after filming Israeli embassy in Kenya
The two Iranians and their Kenyan driver are arrested in possession of video clips and photos of the Israeli embassy in Nairobi; this is the second time Iranians were arrested in Kenya on charges of plotting terrorist acts against Western targets in Kenya.
Two Iranians and their Kenyan driver, who worked for the Iranian embassy in Nairobi, were charged on Thursday with collecting information for a terrorist act after filming the Israeli embassy, lawyers said.
Sayed Nasrollah Ebrahimi, Abdolhosein Ghola Safafe and driver Moses Keyah Mmboga "were found taking video clips of the Israeli embassy ... for the use in the commission of a terrorist act", according to a charge sheet produced in court.
The three men were in a car belonging to the Iranian embassy when they were arrested on Tuesday, the court papers said. The diplomatic status of the two Iranians was unclear.
The Iranian embassy did not respond to requests for comment.
"My clients pleaded not guilty and have been detained by the ATPU (Kenya's Anti Terrorism Police Unit) for further interrogation," defence lawyer Cohen Amanya told Reuters after the men's court appearance.
Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu said the two Iranians were visiting Kenya but gave no further details.
Kenya has suffered repeated militant attacks in recent years but those were mainly carried out by ethnically Somali militants who would be hostile to Iran because of sectarian differences.
In 2002, 15 people died when an Israeli-owned hotel was bombed in the coastal town of Mombasa at the same time two missiles were fired at an Israeli jet, narrowly missing it.
In June 2013 a Kenyan court convicted two Iranian nationals of being Quds agents plotting attacks against Western targets in Kenya and they were sentenced to life in prison. That sentence was reduced on appeal in February to 15 years imprisonment.
Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a 15-kilogram stash of the explosive RDX. At least 85 kilograms of the explosives that authorities say was shipped into Kenya has not yet been found.
Kenyan anti-terror officials said the two Iranians are members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, an elite and secretive unit.
In November 2015, two Kenyans admitted assisting Iranian state intelligence to plot attacks on western targets in Kenya, according to the country's police chief. Abubakar Sadiq Louw, 69, and Yassin Sambai Juma, 25, confessed to being spies for the Quds Force, according to Joseph Boinnet.
He said the two had been given money by their handlers to case their targets for future terror attacks and to recruit others, including children. He declined to say which western targets were being surveyed.
