http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/Jamaican-cleric-finally-leaves-Kenya-7022.html

http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/10087


amaican cleric finally leaves Kenya
BY BERNARD MOMANYI
Update 1 hours and 10 minutes ago

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 7 - The government finally deported controversial
Jamaican Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal to Gambia on Thursday,
following days of uncertainly after Tanzania refused to accept him.

Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang said the 45-year-old al-Faisal
chose to go to Gambia after the country agreed to give him passage to
Jamaica.

“We were unable to deport him initially because most countries,
including the United States were not willing to receive him on their
soil even on transit, that is why we allowed him to choose a country
of his choice,” the Minister said.

“He chose Gambia, and he has already been deported to that country
because it accepted to receive him,” he said when he met Al-Faisal’s
lawyer Haroun Ndubi and Muslim human rights activists led by Al-Amin
Kimathi.

The group had gone to the Minister’s office to demand to be allowed to
see the preacher who was being held at the Jomo Kenyatta International
Airport (JKIA) after Tanzania refused him entry at the Namanga border.

Mr Kajwang’ told the group “the matter is no longer in the
jurisdiction of the Kenyan government because the subject has already
landed in Banjul.”

“We are in touch with the Gambian government and the information we
have is that he has already landed in Banjul. Authorities there have
agreed to facilitate his movement to his final destination which is
his home country in Jamaica,” the Minister said.

Mr Ndubi and Muslim leaders however, insisted they wanted to see the
deportation order the Minister had signed and documents showing
Al-Faisal had accepted to be taken to Banjul.

“We want to see where my client has signed to show he was taken to
Banjul in his own volition.  He had indicated he only wanted to be
taken to Jamaica, and we don’t understand why we were not being
allowed to see him before he left,” Mr Ndubi said.

The Minister pledged to show them the documents but insisted Kenya
“had no alternative but to deport him.”

“There is a very thin rope to walk between activism and security.
Al-Faisal has not committed any crime here in Kenya but we are relying
on his past history and the fact that he is on the global watchlist,
we had to deport him,” Mr Kajwang said.

According to Mr Kajwang, the Muslim cleric was arrested on News Years’
eve as he left a mosque in the coastal town of Mombasa.  He had
arrived in Kenya a week earlier by road from Tanzania.

“Our officers were not able to detect him and he was therefore allowed
to come into the country, but when our officers realised that he was
in Kenya, he had to be arrested and I signed the deportation order,”
Mr Kajwang explained.

Mr Al-Faisal was born Trevor William Forrest in St James Jamaica, and
left the island for the UK 26 years ago, according to international
media reports.

His parents are reported to have been Salvation Army officers who
raised him as a Christian up to the age of 16 when he is said to have
relocated to Saudi Arabia where he spent eight years and became a
Muslim.

He was arrested and convicted in Britain in 2003 after spending years
urging his audiences to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners but was
released on parole in 2007 and expelled from the UK.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤