Ahmed Rashid: I am not a murderer, please have mercy on me

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NAIROBI - Kenya's estranged police officer Rashid Ahmed now wants the court to drop murder charges he's facing, claiming that he's being "fixed" through "trumped" on cases whose primary motive is to bring him "down" using "fictitious and illegal" channels.

The Independent Police Oversight Authority [IPOA] wants Ahmed Rashid, who has been labeled as a killer corp, charged with a murder having been implicated in many cases. The Corp is based in Kenya's populous suburb of Eastleigh in the capital, Nairobi.

Danstan Omari, the officer's lawyer, wants the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji to drop the double homicide charges Mr. Rashid is facing. The filing includes allegations against the IPOA, ODPP, and Inspector General Japhet Koome, as well as letters of support from the Eastleigh Business community.

The officer is accused of killing Jamal Mohamed and Mohamed Dahir Kheri, two alleged gang members, at Amal Plaza in Eastleigh on March 31, 2017, in front of hundreds of horrified shoppers. He killed them in broad daylight, triggering uproar from members of the public.

According to the officer, Rashid was in the area around 1st Avenue in Eastleigh when he received a radio call about an ongoing robbery at the Amal Plaza. He raced to the scene with uniformed and plainclothes officers and was confronted by the armed suspects.

"That the petitioner and his colleagues had been trailing the robbers who on the same date of the incident had robbed several known persons," reads court documents.

Court documents further allege that the Corp was confronted by seven armed robbers and this forced him to bring down one of the suspects who also tried to disarm a police officer. He accused the robbers of suffocating residents of Eastleigh for a couple of years.

"One of the robbers, upon realizing that he was cornered, tried to snatch a firearm from a police officer. In the ensuing scuffle, he was also shot and neutralized."

"The decision by the DPP to charge me for the offense of Murders is irrational, an abuse of discretion, a failure to act fairly in the exercise of discretion actuated by malice or other relevant considerations against public interests, does not cohere with the interests of the due administration of justice," lawyer Danstan Omari argued.

Supporters of contentious officer - including dozens of Eastleigh residents - protested outside the Milimani Court on Wednesday, saying their community needs vigilante police officers like Ahmed Rashid to safeguard them from brutal criminals.

Ahmed Rashid is celebrated and loathed in the equal measure given his style of dealing with perceived criminals. A number of residents want also the charges dropped, arguing that he has been instrumental in helping to reduce crime rates within the capital, Nairobi.

GAROWE ONLINE

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