A Kenyan convicted in a trial linked to the homicide of a British man has been free of jail, after a decade-long marketing campaign to overturn his conviction.
The BBC revealed in 2022 {that a} senior Metropolitan police officer who assisted the Kenyan investigation “omitted key forensic evidence” within the trial of Ali Kololo.
Jude Tebbutt, the spouse of the murdered man, says Ali Kololo is harmless.
His conviction is predicted to be formally overturned in April.
David Tebbutt and his spouse Jude had been staying at a secluded resort on the Kenyan coast in 2011, after they got here underneath assault. David was killed and Jude was held hostage in close by Somalia for six months. She was solely launched after her grownup son, Olly, negotiated a ransom deal.
Father of two, Ali Kololo, was convicted of theft with violence and sentenced to demise at a trial in 2013. His demise sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Ali Kololo joined the enchantment listening to on the Kenyan Excessive Courtroom in Malindi on Monday by video hyperlink from Mombasa’s Shimo La Tewa most safety jail, the place he has been incarcerated for greater than a decade.
“Ali has suffered in jail for 11 years, the sufferer of a horrible injustice, whereas David Tebbutt’s killers stay free,” his lawyer, Alfred Olaba says.
“The case in opposition to him was weak and riddled with inconsistencies from the beginning.”
In June 2022, the BBC revealed that the Unbiased Workplace for Police Conduct (IOPC), which had been investigating Det Ch Insp Neil Hibberd’s position within the case since June 2018, had concluded that “had the officer nonetheless been serving he would have had a case to reply for gross misconduct”.
If confirmed, gross misconduct might result in dismissal of a serving officer – however Mr Hibberd retired in 2017.
Neil Hibberd was a key prosecution witness and his proof was cited by the Justice of the Peace as one of many deciding components in Ali Kololo’s conviction.
Mr Hibberd “completely disagrees with the [IOPC] findings”, his lawyer informed the BBC in 2022.
Earlier than the enchantment courtroom listening to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Kenya confirmed his place that Ali Kololo ought to by no means have been convicted and sentenced to demise, because the trial decide’s findings had been “not primarily based on the proof on report” and had been “primarily based on rumour testimony”.
The DPP stated that testimony given by Det Ch Insp Neil Hibberd on the arrest and essential shoe-print proof that linked Ali Kololo to the scene of the crime was “purely rumour proof”.
Director of justice charity Reprieve, Maya Foa, says there may be an awesome feeling of aid that Ali Kololo has lastly been launched.
“We hope the Excessive Courtroom will quickly overturn his conviction,” she says.
“However whereas we rejoice Ali’s freedom, we should always not lose sight of the whole lot that has been taken from him and his household.”
