A Kenyan magistrate has today acquitted three men charged with conspiracy in a 2002 suicide bombing claimed by al-Qaeda that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned hotel.
Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule said there was no evidence that defendants Salmin Mohammed Khamis, Mohammed Kubwa Seif and Said Saggar Ahmed were linked to al-Qaeda.
Three Israelis and 12 Kenyans were killed after two suicide bombers broke through barriers outside the Paradise Hotel with a four-wheel drive vehicle full of explosives on November 28th, 2002.
At almost the same time, a missile fired at an Israeli airliner leaving the airport in the nearby Kenyan resort town of Mombasa narrowly missed its intended target.
Mr Muchelule issued the ruling almost three weeks after a Kenyan judge acquitted four men charged with carrying out the bombing, saying prosecutors had failed to link them to the bombers or to al-Qaeda.