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Ring Leader Admits Lending Support To The Brutal Killing Of Richard And Enid Eyeington
Hargeisa, June 26, 2004 (SL Times) – Five suspected terrorists awaiting trial in Somaliland for the slaying of Ms Flora Chepkemol-Cheriyot, a Kenyan woman consultant and for lending support to the brutal killing of a British couple, Richard and Enid Eyeington, were met by the press last Tuesday for the first time since their capture on March 19, 2004.
The Somaliland authorities have until Tuesday kept the 5 detainees away from the press for security reasons. Journalists were allowed to take pictures and ask few questions concerning names, date and birthplaces, clan background and how they have been treated while in custody.
Reporters met the detainees one after another in the office of the director of Hargeisa Central Prison. Jama Abdillahi, the man believed to be the group’s ringleader refused to talk to the press and the reporters were obliged to respect his wish. The remaining four suspected terrorists said they saw no mistreatment. “The inquiry sessions were however tough and tiresome,” said one of them. All the 5 detainees actually looked in good shape, at least physically.
Sources close to the investigation told the Somaliland Times that Jama Abdillahi, known as Jama Kutiye, had also been in investigated in connection with the killing of Richard and Enid Eyeington, two Britons who worked as schoolteachers at Sheikh Secondary School. The Eyeingtons were brutally murdered on October 20, 2003 while they watched TV in their apartment at Sheikh School.
According to investigators, Jama Kutiye confessed to lending support to the Eyeingtons’ killing. Though he denied carrying out the actual murder, he insisted that his role was to identify the target as well as the routes of approach and escape.
The other 4 members of Jama’s group also blamed him for being the person who pulled the trigger when the Kenyan woman was shot. A pistol gun was used in the murder.
Jama Kutiye was believed to have been injured in the nineties while fighting for Al-Itihad, a terrorist organization linked to Al-Qaida. No date has yet been set for the group’s trial.
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