Five Kenyans accused of involvement in last year’s bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa have pleaded not guilty to murder. The men, who are Kenyan Muslims from the coast, face the murder charges after the car bomb last November that killed 12 Kenyans and three Israelis. The United States has blamed the al-Qaeda group for the attack. The suicide bombing happened at almost exactly the same time as missiles were launched at an Israeli commercial flight taking off from the nearby port city of Mombasa, narrowly missing their target. The legal case is the most high-profile one seen in the country. But there was confusion and drama in Kenya’s courts this morning. The BBC’s Ishbel Matheson says the case took an unexpected twist when the chief magistrate released the five. But this was a legal technicality because the government has changed the way murder cases are dealt with in the Kenyan courts. Full Story
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