Kenya acquits 4 in deadly hotel bombing

UPI | June 9, 2005

A Kenyan high court judge acquitted four men Thursday of charges in an al-Qaida-linked 2002 suicide hotel bombing in Mombasa that killed 15 people.

Kenya High Court Justice John Osiemo chastised prosecutors for bringing the case to trial in the first place, The Telegraph reported.

"The prosecution has not established that the four accused persons were at the scene of the murder, nor that they had met the two suicide bombers and there was a prearranged plan between them and the suicide bombers," Osiemo said.

On Nov. 28, 2002, 12 Kenyans and three Israeli tourists were killed when two suicide bombers broke through barriers outside the Paradise Hotel with a vehicle packed with explosives.

Three other men are being tried for conspiracy to bomb the hotel, and a judgment in the case is expected for them later this month, the BBC said.

Lawyers for the freed men said their clients intended to sue the government for malicious prosecution.

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