A Kenyan magistrate acquitted three Kenyan men on Monday who had been charged with conspiring to blow up an Israeli-owned hotel and attempting to shoot down an Israeli airliner. A Nairobi Chief Magistrate, Aggrey Muchelule, said that none of the evidence presented by the prosecution connected the three men _ Kubwa Mohammed Seif, Said Saggar Ahmed and Salmin Mohammed Khamis _ to the bombing or to the attempt to down the plane in November 2002. Fifteen people died in the hotel bombing. "I have considered the evidence in totality and I have come to the conclusion that the prosecution has failed beyond reasonable doubt to prove its case against the accused persons and I set them free," Muchelule was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. An earlier trial acquitted four other men of murder in the car bombing of the hotel. Seif's lawyer, Kirathe Wandugi, said that he was extremely happy with the magistrate's decision. "Our clients have been exonerated and the course of justice has been met. It's been a very long trial. These people have suffered, two and a half years have gone." Wandugi said.
