2016-06-30
MOMBASA, Kenya, May 29 (AFP) - Muslim clerics here are angered at the the continued interrogation by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents of 10 suspects in the twin bombings of US embassies in East Africa in 1998.

"The FBI should not subject these men to these interrogations after failing to conclude investigations into the bombings. If they were part of the deadly plot, why are they not charged in a court of law," asked National Council of Imams' secretary Sheikh Mohamud DorMohammed.

The bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi killed 213 people, 12 of them Americans, and injured over 5,000 others, while a simultaneous explosion at the US embassy in Dar es Salaam killed 11 Tanzanians and wounded over 70.

The reactions followed reports indicating that FBI agents had swarmed into this sleepy port city to question local mechanic Ali Mahfoudh and nine other men for their alleged role in the bombing of the US embassy in central Nairobi on August 7, 1998.

Mahfoudh successfully fought an extradition order to face trial in the United States a year ago after a judge ruled that Kenya and the US had no binding extradition treaty.

"I am surprised that they came back to question me for my role, despite my having repeatedly protested my innocence," Mahfoudh told AFP Monday.

Mahfoudh was contracted by indicted suspect Mohamed Odeh, now facing trial in a New York court, to repair the truck which was used to transport explosives to the US embassy on the morning on August 7.

But during interrogations, Mahfoudh maintained that he had never before the day of the bombing met Odeh, believed to be a lieutenant of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

"I still do not know the man. Mine was a simple, innocent contract which I undertook without any knowledge of who the suspects were," Mahfoudh said.

"We Muslims are incensed that Americans come all the way here to intimidate adherents of the faith. We strongly believe this is unwarranted and unfair," Sheikh DorMohammed charged.

"It is not right to revisit that fateful day, especially when genuine Muslims are implicated without anything tangible against them," he told AFP.

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