Renowned criminal lawyer Cliff Ombeta has lifted the lid on some of the scariest moments of his profession, where he almost lost his life for representing drug barons.
In a report on the Star, Ombeta said he was almost killed by Americans who wanted to extradite the Akasha brothers; Baktash and Ibrahim, who have since been found guilty by a New York court.
He said before the Akasha brothers were taken away, they sought his legal services, which he offered, angering American agents.
Having refused to reveal the whereabouts of the brothers to the Americans, Ombeta claims the American agents resorted to tracking them using a laptop.
When he realised that the agents were using a laptop to trail his clients, he smashed and threw it into the ocean, which only landed him in more trouble with the detectives.
“They said I had destroyed American property and insisted that they were not recording us. They said they were just testing their equipment. I dared them to do their worst,” he said.
He said they had bodyguards, but the Americans still trailed them, and would take the next hotel room if they booked into a hotel, just to be able to spy on the brothers.
Ombeta claimed he rejected bribes from the investigators to give his clients away, which led to a gun being pointed at him at some point in Mombasa.
“At Akasha’s house they even put guns to my head,” he added in an exclusive interview with the publication.
In August this year, the two were arraigned before Justice Victor Marrerro, where their former ally and Indian drug lord Vijay Goswami testified against them.
Back at home, Ombeta is known for his involvement in numerous criminal cases, including the murder case of late businessman Tob Cohen.
