Kenyan lawmaker wants terror suspect released from Gitmo

NAIROBI, Kenya — When President Obama returns to the United States after his visit to East Africa, some Kenyans hope he’ll consider releasing one of their countrymen from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

Sen. Hassan Omar, a Kenyan lawmaker who represents the largely Muslim city of Mombasa on the coast of the Indian Ocean, wants Obama to set free alleged al-Qaeda-linked terrorist Abdul Malik.

“We need Obama to order the release of this terror suspect if he claims to be a friend to Kenyans,” Omar said Sunday, when Obama departed for Ethiopia, where he will address the African Union this week on efforts to fight Islamic extremists on the continent.

Kenyan authorities arrested Malik in 2007 in Mombasa on allegations of plotting to attack American installations near the city. He was never charged with a crime, but Kenya remanded him to the US. He is now in “indefinite detention,” meaning he is not slated for release or trial, according to a report released this month by Human Rights First, a Washington-based advocacy group.

“He is still languishing in prison,” Omar said.

Malik admitted to participating in a 2002 attack involving a terrorist who drove a bomb-filled sports utility vehicle into the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, killing 13, according to a Pentagon statement. He also admitted to trying to use shoulder-launched rockets to shoot down an Israeli civilian airliner carrying 271 passengers near Mombasa, the statement said.

Human Rights First questioned the Pentagon’s claims and said American and Kenyan officials should determine Malik’s status and send him to a Kenyan prison if necessary. “The United States and Kenya can still craft an appropriate security agreement so that he can be transferred and tried or detained in Kenya,” the group’s report said.

Kenyan parliamentary leaders raised the issue with the president during his three-day visit, Omar said. The president has promised he would shutter the Cuba facility and has been releasing prisoners to their home countries. Omar was optimistic that Obama might release Malik before his term ends next year.

Mombasa residents who knew Malik said he was a kind young man and didn’t deserve his fate.

“His family has been traumatized since the incident occurred,” said Ahmed Farah, a friend of the suspected terrorist. “We hope justice will take place.”