By Andrew
Bagala, Kampala UGANDA
A prime
terror suspect of the al-Shabaab militants has escaped from police detention in
Uganda.
It is alleged that Abdul Kadir Mohamed Mohamud
Sandir and five other Somali nationals had plotted to carry out terror attacks
at Parliament, Oasis Mall, Makerere University and two other key sites in
Kampala city centre in 2014.
According to a highly placed police source, who
preferred anonymity, Sandir escaped from police custody 10 days ago.
Police had been keeping Sandir in a secret
state facility within the city since he was re-arrested in 2018 after the High
Court dismissed the terror charges against him and his co-accused.
The source said a manhunt for Sandir had been
launched and investigations on how he escaped from the guarded security
facility were ongoing.
The source declined to disclose the facility
which Sandir escaped from.
The deputy police spokesperson, Polly Namaye,
declined to comment on the incident.
“I cannot comment on that. I do not have any
information about it,” Namaye told our reporter yesterday.
Police detectives privy to the case said a team
of intelligence officers from different countries tracked Sandir and his
colleagues from Somalia where they were accused of carrying out a terror attack
on a police station in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
It is alleged that the suspects fled to Kenya
where they stayed for some time without being detected by the local
authorities.
They later travelled to Uganda to carry out a
terror attack at targeted sites; Parliament, Oasis Mall and a hospital in the
Kololo suburb.
Security sources said the al-Shabaab group wanted
to retaliate against Uganda’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
Ugandan troops, under the African Union Mission
for Somalia, have been battling the Islamist militants since 2007. With the
help of the United States, the Uganda police tracked the suspects to a hotel in
the Somali community-dominated Kisenyi slum in Kampala where they were
arrested. Security agencies recovered suicide vests and explosives in their
rooms.
At least 19 suspects were arrested, but upon
screening, 10, including two women, were taken to court, charged and remanded.
However, during regular interrogation by police
detectives at Kigo Prison, Sandir allegedly admitted the terror plot. He was
then isolated from his co-suspects and taken to a separate room.
Later, the Director of Public Prosecutions
dropped the terror charges against Sandir’s four co-accused, including two
women.
However, the state deported them to Somalia but
Sandir and five others remained in prison.
In 2018, court also dismissed the charges
against Abdul Sandir and the five co-accused and set them free. However, they
were re-arrested by police at the court entrance.
They were never taken back to court for fresh
charging. Their lawyer yesterday said the five were later deported to Somalia,
but Sandir remained under Uganda police custody until he escaped a few days
ago. - Africa
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