Ex-cop sentenced to death for murder

Those who receive a death sentence in Kenyan courts receive a life sentence. The last time a Kenyan was executed was in 1987.

AP – NAIROBI, Kenya For the murders of a human rights lawyer, his client and a taxi driver on Friday, a former Kenyan police officer was sentenced to death.

In one of several cases of alleged police brutality and extrajudicial killings in Kenya, Frederic Leliman and three others were found guilty of murders in 2016.

The motorcycle taxi driver who sued Leliman for shooting him at a checkpoint was represented by attorney Willie Kimani. Later, Leliman began to intimidate and threaten the man.

A few days after they were reported missing, the bodies of Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were found in the Ol Donyo Sabuk River in the east of the country.

All three were captured after a court hearing on June 22, 2016, locked up for a moment and then taken outside and killed in a field, according to evidence presented in court. On July 1, their bodies were discovered.

Leliman was sentenced to death, former police officers Silvia Wandjiku and Stephen Cheburet were sentenced to 30 and 24 years respectively, and police informant Peter Ngugi was sentenced to 20 years. Leonard Mwangi, the fourth former police officer, was found not guilty.

In the Kenyan courts, those who pass the death penalty are given a life sentence. The last time a Kenyan was executed was in 1987.

Four have fourteen days to appeal.

With the Kenyan police previously accused of violence and extrajudicial executions, but relatively few officers found guilty, the killings sparked a wave of protests from lawyers and human rights activists.

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