Iranians accused of filming office of Kenya's president


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Two Iranian nationals and a Kenyan accused of collecting information to facilitate a terrorist act after allegedly being found with video footage of the Israeli embassy also filmed the office of Kenya's president, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Duncan Ondimu argued against granting bail to the two Iranians, saying they had filmed restricted government sites.

Sayed Nasrollah Ebrahim and Abdolhosein Gholi Safaee were arrested last week in an Iranian diplomatic car in the capital, Nairobi. They have denied the charges.

Iran says the men are lawyers and were in Kenya representing two other Iranians jailed for 15 years for terrorism.

According to the Iranian Embassy, the men committed no offense in taking pictures of iconic buildings. "It is not surprising they took any of the photos of the buildings, they did so as would any other foreigner," the deputy ambassador said in a court document.

Magistrate Joyce Gandani said she will rule on the bail application in a week.

The men's Kenyan driver, Moses Keyah Mmboga, also faces a charge of abetting terrorism.

In June 2013, a Kenyan court convicted two Iranian nationals of plotting attacks against Western targets and sentenced them to life in prison. They led officials to a 15-kilogram (33-pound) stash of the explosive RDX. Their sentence was reduced on appeal in February to 15 years in prison.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent World stories

Related topics

World
TOM ODULA

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast