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Two Kenyan traders in the air transport industry have been charged with defrauding former African champions T.P. Mazembe $132,440 (Sh14,434,870) pretending they would charter a private jet for them from Nairobi to airlift them to Algiers, Algeria from Lubumbashi March this year.
Mr Abdikhan Ibrahim Ali, Ms Najma Chaudhry and Ecobeast Travel and Safaris Limited were charged before Milimani chief magistrate Francis Andayi with defrauding T. P. Mazembe of Democratic Republic of Congo the hard currency on March 31, 2021.
Ali and Najma who were arrested on May 7 and arraigned on May 10 denied two counts of obtaining money through pretences and conspiring to defraud the foreign football club.
The two who had been out on a police bond of Sh100,000 each had allegedly informed T.P. Mazembe that they would charter an Aircraft Registration No.5Y-JWF Type F70 owned by Jetways Airlines to ferry the players from Lubumbashi to Algiers on March 31 2021.
The charge stated the two knew they were not in a position to charter the airliner.
The accused were further accused of conspiring to defraud T.P. Mazembe $132,440 (Sh14,434,870) being part payment to charter the plane to ferry the players from Lubumbashi to Algiers.
Applying for their release on bond, the accused informed the court that the transaction which has landed them in court is a commercial transaction.
“There is a pending commercial case at the High Court,” Mr Andayi heard.
Asking the court to consider freeing them on a reasonable bond, Ali said he is diabetic and requires constant medical attention while Najma said she has a baby who needs motherly care.
State prosecutor Angela Fuchaka told the magistrate that there are no orders from the high court barring the criminal trial of the two travel agents.
She said Section 393 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) permits both civil and criminal cases to proceed simultaneously.
Ms Fuchaka applied to have a Bank Account held by the accused persons at the First Community Bank where the money is suspected to be held frozen.
But Mr Andayi declined to freeze the account saying “it’s only the high court which can grant freezing orders. A magistrate’s court can only issue orders to investigate the account but not to freeze them.”
In his ruling Mr Andayi directed each of the accused to deposit a cash bail of Sh500,000 until May 24, 2021 when directions on the trial date will be issued.
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