Kenyan Muslim leaders are calling on the government to return 19 other terror suspects who are still languishing in Ethiopian prisons over the extra-judicial renditions.
The religious leaders are also demanding a public apology from the government over the rendition of Kenyans to Ethiopia on suspicion of terror links
The National Muslims Leaders Forum (Namlef) has also said they will sue the government for compensation of those illegally deported to foreign countries.
"What logic is there for a government to call its citizens foreigners, deport them, turn around after 18 months to claim them, then bring them back to the country, declare them terrorists and release them into the civilian population?" asked Namlef chairman Abdilahi Abdi.
"We want those who are still missing to be brought back. If they are dead we want their bodies for burial. Further the Government must apologize for crimes it committed to these innocent Kenyans," Abdi was quoted by the Standard newspaper as saying on Monday.
Abdi told a news conference in Nairobi that there were 27 Kenyans who were rounded up and deported to Ethiopia but only eight had been returned after they proved they were Kenyans.
The forum said there was enough evidence that the government violated the victims' rights.
The leaders are reacting to the return of eight Kenyans almost 18 months after they were deported to Somalia and Ethiopia after they presented themselves at the border in the height of a fight between Ethiopian soldiers and Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC).
Abdi said it was embarrassing that the government had initially branded the victims foreigners before changing tune to say they are Kenyans.
Abdi singled out heads of security agencies for misleading the country on terrorism matters and demanded they be investigated. He said he was speaking on behalf of other Muslim leaders to vent their anger on the issue.
He said Muslims had experienced a lot of tribulations as they sought to have the deportees returned home and that they held discussions with all levels of government.
"Even the president denied there were Kenyans who were deported and then ordered the issue be investigated. It was frustrating but this is the beginning of the fight for respect of our rights," he said.
Abdi urged all Kenyans to condemn the government over the deportation of the Kenyans to a foreign country, saying whatever happened to the victims could happen to anyone.
He said some of the victims are nursing wounds that they sustained while in custody and urged the media to be fair on the issue.
He said those who had been returned are being intimidated and threatened by state agents who say they are under investigation, demanding that they be left free or be prosecuted if there is evidence that they are criminals.
Abdi said state agents are using terrorism claims to harass and intimidate Muslim leaders. "Muslims have never and will not support terrorism. Some of our leaders are being threatened for talking against the harassment of our people accused of the same, and that should stop."
The group which returned home on Friday night after more than a year in incarceration in Ethiopia where they were held on suspicion of being involved in terrorism activities in Somalia said they were tortured when held as terrorist suspects in Addis Ababa.
The men said over the weekend that for two long years they lay in their cells with their hands bound tightly behind their backs.
They were bound tightly hand and foot when being dragged from their cells to be interrogated, often by American intelligence agents and people from Israel's anti-terrorism unit.
Muslim leaders in Kenya welcomed the arrival of the eight suspects. The leaders were however angered by the government report that claimed the eight were "trained and dangerous".
The government, while revealing that the eight had been allowed back to Kenya, claimed investigations had revealed that the suspects had traveled to Somalia in 2006 to get militia training and were recruited into terrorist cells by international terrorists operating in Southern Somalia.
"Indeed, most of them met and worked with such notorious international terrorists as Haroun Fazul and Saleh Nabhan, the leaders of the al Qaida cell in East Africa," read a government statement.
The claim has however been denied by the victims and Muslim leaders.
Source:Xinhua
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