Kenya: Wife accused of helping anthrax plot appears in court

NAIROBI, Kenya – The wife accused of assisting her medic husband to plot a biological attack in Kenya and assisting in recruiting for the Islamic State group has been extradited from Uganda and appeared in a Nairobi court Tuesday.

Nuseiba Mohammed Haji, a medical student in Uganda and wife of medical intern Mohammed Ali Abdi, is alleged to have been an accomplice in a foiled plan to launch an anthrax attack in Kenya by a cell of extremist medics linked to the Islamic State group, according to police. Abdi was arrested on April 29 and a court granted police 30 days to hold him for investigations.

Haji appeared in court as police asked for permission to keep her in their custody for an additional 30 days for investigations. Magistrate Martha Mutuku will rule on the police application on May 16.

Police say two of Ali’s alleged accomplices, Ahmed Hish and Farah Dagane, both medical interns in the western Kenyan town of Kitale, have gone into hiding.

Human rights activists however say the disappearance of the two medics and a third missing pharmacist fall into the pattern of extra-judicial executions and forced disappearances carried out by the police on suspects they are unable to prosecute because insufficient evidence.

Kenya police have been accused by international, local, the government funded human right groups and opposition leaders carrying out extra-judicial executions on hundreds of suspects found murdered or who have disappeared without a trace.

Kenya is struggling to battle the Islamic State group’s recruitment of some of the country’s youths. At least 20 Kenyan young people have travelled to Libya to join the extremist group, according to police.

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