Iran summons Kenyan ambassador over two detained nationals

Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Kenya’s ambassador to Tehran, expressing the Islamic Republic’s protest to Nairobi after the Kenyan Supreme Court overturned a decision to free two Iranian nationals jailed in the African country over terror charges.

After revocation of an earlier ruling to release the two Iranians, Ahmad Abolfathi and Seyyed Mansour Mousavi, Iranian Foreign Ministry’s director general for African affairs summoned the Kenyan Ambassador, Rukia Ahmed Subow, on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Sunday.

He added that the Iranian official expressed the Islamic Republic’s “dissatisfaction” with the “unfair” ruling and noted that the Kenyan envoy was recalled for consultations.

Kenya’s Supreme Court on Friday overturned a Court of Appeals decision acquitting two Iranian suspects sentenced to 15 years after they were found guilty of three terrorism-related charges.

Abolfathi and Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 in Nairobi following a short visit to the coastal town of Mombasa. In May 2013, a court sentenced the two Iranian nationals to life in prison over allegations of plotting attacks against Western interests in Kenya.

The two Iranians have since served five years and will now be taken to Kamiti Maximum Prison to serve the remaining years of their sentence and later expatriated.