MOMBASA, Kenya, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- A Kenyan court on Friday sentenced widow of controversial Muslim preacher Aboud Rogo to ten years in prison over foiled terror attack at a police station in the coastal city of Mombasa in 2016.
Mombasa Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache found Haniya Saggar guilty of withholding information regarding the bombing of Mombasa Central Police Station where three women were killed by police officers in Sept. 2016.
Mochache said Saggar had communicated with the women five days to the attack.
The court said the officers were acting in self defense after the women hurled a petrol bomb and stabbed police officer manning the station.
The court has a duty to safeguard the lives of people including State officers. "If police officers did not act in speed, there could have been more deaths at the station," Mochache ruled.
The court however found her not guilty of being involved in the planning of the attack saying that the prosecution did not prove its claims.
Detectives claim Saggar communicated with Tasnim prior to the attack and there was some financial transaction between them.
The troubled widow has been in court several times, defending her late husband Rogo over terrorism charges in court.
Rogo is believed to have had close links to Fazul Mohammed, the leader of Al Qaida in East Africa, whom a US court indicted in 2008 for the 1998 US embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania.
According to his followers, Rogo used his unique gift and knowledge of Islam to "inspire and inform" thousands of young Muslims all over East Africa.
Masjid Musa, Sakina and Kikambala Madrassa are among the platforms Rogo used to recruit hundreds of youths under the government's nose.
