Saudi Arabia yesterday insisted that its citizen arrested by police in Lamu this week was not a terrorist.
Deputy ambassador Ibrahim Baranawe said its citizen Ahmed Hanas was in Kenya with a tourist visa and the embassy was aware that he was in the country.
Baranawe said Hanas is a student studying in Holland and was on holiday at the Coast before he was arrested on Thursday.
He said Hanas stayed in Mombasa before going to Lamu for '"recreational activities".
"I am currently in Mombasa to follow up the issue. I think his arrest was irregular," he told the Star. He said the embassy did not believe that he was associate with al Shabaab.
According to police, Hanas was arrested in Kiunga, Lamu after they raided the hotel where he was staying. They said he had no proper travel documents and could not express himself in Kiswahili or English.
Lamu police boss Samson Obara said Hanas was suspected to be a link man for al Shabaab network and to be recruiting local and foreign fighters.
"That is not true," Baranawe said. He said Hanas was arrested in his hotel and not at the border as police claimed.
The deputy ambassador said Hanas speaks Arabic, English and Dutch but not Kiswahili. He said the Saudi citizen is currently being interrogated by the anti-terror police in Mombasa.
Police yesterday arrested a research scientist at Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Mubarak Athman Abubakar, 33 years, for hosting Hanas for two days at his house in Bondeni in Mombasa.
Abubakar allegedly facilitated for Hanas's transport from Mombasa to Lamu using a KMFRI vehicle and boat before it was seized on Thursday.
The police suspected they were heading to Somalia through Kiunga.
“He ( Abubakar) knew the main suspect two years ago when they met in Mombasa. We are currently holding him in Mukowe in Lamu before escorting him to Mombasa,” said Lamu police boss Samson Obara. The police have confiscated Abubakar's passport.
The two men have now been escorted to Mombasa under a heavy guard and are being interrogated at the port police station by senior anti-terrorism police.
Mombasa CID boss Henry Ondeik said Hanas entered Kenya at Lunga Lunga on the Tanzanian border on April 18 .
His Saudi passport indicated that he had traveled from Saudi Arabia to Johannesburg and then to East Africa.
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