A Kenyan court has found UK national Jermaine Grant guilty of possessing explosive-making materials.
Jermaine Grant was charged alongside his wife Warda Breik and Frank Ngala after being arrested at a house in Kisauni, Mombasa. The house was allegedly owned by the most wanted woman on the terror list Samantha Lewthwaite alias “White Widow”.
Grant, who has been facing charges since 2011, was charged with three counts among them, conspiracy to manufacture explosives with the aim of causing mass destruction.
The Mombasa Court said the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person lived in the house where the chemicals which are key components in explosives making were recovered.
The Magistrate further said evidence produced in court had linked the chemicals to Mr Grant.
Grant’s wife, Warda Breik Islam, a Kenyan national, was accused of being an accomplice in the offence. She was acquitted over lack of sufficient evidence.
The court ruled that Ms. Breik, who was arrested a day after marrying the accused, was not well aware of her husband’s activities or that explosives had been stored in their matrimonial house.
The third suspect was also released after the court found that he had been accused wrongfully.
Frank Ngala, who was found with a phone belonging to Grant, told the court he had picked up the device in a public vehicle. He denied knowing Grant and his wife personally before the arrest.
The accused will be sentenced on May 9, 2019.
Grant is already serving a nine years term for forging immigration documents in order to obtain an identification card.
He is believed to be part of an al Shabab-linked cell that planned multiple attacks over Christmas in 2011.
