Police were on Wednesday allowed to hold a terror suspect for seven days to allow a multi-agency security team complete investigation.
Mombasa Chief Magistrate Edna Nyaloti directed that Fawaz Ahmed Hamdun, who is accused of recruiting youth to Al-Shabaab, be detained at Port Police Station.
The police had sought to have the suspect detained for 20 days but the court ruled that the State has resources to analyse data from mobile phones recovered from the suspect in less than the days they want.
Through prosecutor Eric Masila, police sought to have the suspect detained longer because he is yet to be interrogated by a security multi-agency team.
Mr Masila told the court that when Mr Hamdun was arrested, three mobile phones and Sim cards were seized from him and are yet to be analysed by cybercrime officers based in Nairobi.
The prosecutor also argued the court that the right to liberty is not absolute and that the investigations being carried out are critical and allowed under the Constitution.
According to the investigation officer, Mr Hamdun was seized from his house and he willingly surrendered his mobile phones for investigation.
The officer told the court that the suspect was not summoned to any police station and they have not yet received any information extracted from the mobile phones confiscated.
Through lawyer Yusuf Aboubakar, the suspect told the court that he is entitled to bail in accordance to Article 49 of the Constitution.
Mr Aboubakar further said that the suspect was ready and willing to report to any police station for interrogation.
He further said that there must be compelling reasons adduced to warrant the denial of bail to the suspect while noting that there is no evidence by the prosecution that the suspect) is a flight risk.
“The prosecution wants sympathy and assistance, it wants to put you (court) in a position to violate the law in the name of assisting a police force that does not follow the law in their investigations,” argued Mr Aboubakar.
The case will be mention on October 8.
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