A United Arab Emirates (UAE) woman is suing the Kenyan authorities, saying she was kidnapped by police, taken to Somalia and Ethiopia, and tortured.
Kamilya Mohammedi Tuweni says she was seized by Kenyan special police and accused of being an al-Qaeda agent while on trip to Kenya in 2007.
Ms Tuweni was released without charge after being detained for 72 days, and was given no reason for her detention.
The head of Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police Unit denies the allegations.
Monday’s proceedings have now finished and the presiding Judge Isaac Lenaola has set the next hearing for 29 October.
Ms Tuweni is suing the Kenyan government for financial compensation and is demanding a formal apology for her treatment.
Frequently breaking down in tears as she gave evidence to the court in Nairobi via video-link from London, Ms Tuweni said that she needed money to pay for medical help, according to Kenyan rights group Journalists for Justice, whose representative was present at the hearing.
Documents submitted to the court stated that Ms Tuweni was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after she was “mentally and physically tortured” during her detention. Her ability to make a livelihood for her and her children had been dealt “a fatal blow” by her ordeal, and she had forever lost the trust of her business contacts as a result, the documents added.
Ms Tuweni, and two of her business colleagues, were arrested in the Kenyan resort town of Malindi near Mombasa.
After fighting escalated in Mogadishu, she says she was transferred to Ethiopia where she was interrogated by FBI agents, before eventually being freed without charge.
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