Ethiopia releases Kenyan suspected Islamists

October 4, 2008 (NAIROBI) — Ethiopian government has released and returned eight Kenyan suspected Islamist who were held in Ethiopia after being sent there in secret in early 2007 for interrogation by Ethiopian and American security official.

Dozens of terror suspects were detained in Somalia and Kenya in January and February 2007, after Ethiopian troops supporting the transitional Somali government routed an Islamist administration that had taken control of the capital and much of the south. Nairobi handed some of the suspected Islamist to Addis Ababa.

Kenyan government spokesperson Mutua said in a statement on Saturday: “Eight Kenyans who had been fighting with Somali separatists and who had been held in Ethiopia were early this morning returned home to Kenya.

“Investigations have revealed that these Kenyans had travelled to Somalia in 2006 to get militia training and were recruited into terrorist cells by international terrorists operating in Southern Somalia,” the statement said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released this week “detainees said Ethiopian interrogators pulled out their toenails, held loaded guns to their heads, crushed their genitals, and forced them to crawl on their elbows and knees through gravel. Several reported being beaten to the point of unconsciousness.”

American officials have previously acknowledged questioning terror suspects in Ethiopia. They said that no U.S. laws were broken and the interrogations were to prevent future terror attacks.

Mutua’s statement read, “the government urges all leaders, and especially religious leaders, not to appear to support terrorism by supporting terrorists, but to join the government and all Kenyans in routing out this evil manifestation from our community.”

“They denied they were Kenyan and, together with another 70-plus foreigners, were returned to Somalia,” he said.

A ninth Kenyan arrested separately remains in Ethiopia, and the fate of seven other Kenyans is unknown.

(ST)