By Monica Kagia

The State suffered a blow after a Mombasa court rejected its bid to introduce new evidence in a case where a man has been charged with being a member of al-Shabaab.

Senior Resident Magistrate Vincent Adete Friday declined a request by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to serve an inventory book entered during the arrest of Aboud Khalid.

Defence counsel Yusuf Abubakar had opposed the tabling of the document in court as an exhibit citing that they had neither been told about it nor served on them.

“Your honour if you allow this document to be used as a prosecution exhibit, this will not be served at the interest of justice,” said Abubakar.

State Counsel Erick Masila had sought to have the new evidence recorded as an exhibit in court during the hearing of the testimony by an anti-terror police officer.

Aboud has been charged with allegedly being a member of Al-Shabaab and obstructing a police officer from carrying out his duty.

The court heard that the suspect attempted to attack police constable Edapal Lowasa with a knife.

The prosecution, however, applied for the stay of the testimony by the police office to allow them to move to the High Court to seek a review of the ruling barring introduction of new evidence.

Further, the court reduced the bail and bond terms from Sh5 million to Sh3 million and two sureties.

“We pray that the witness step down, so that we can get instructions, we intend to move to the High Court for a review of this ruling,” said Masila.

Officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit arrested the suspect on September 11.

He is alleged to have charged at a police officer with a knife and in the process suffered a gun-shot wound.

The matter will be mentioned on January 28.