Iran Recalls Its Ambassador to Kenya as Relations Turn Sour

Following a decision by Kenya's Supreme Court to overturn a ruling concerning two Iranian terror suspects, Iran has recalled its ambassador to Kenya. A statement from the Iranian Ministry of Affairs says that the Iranian government has also summoned Kenya's ambassador. 

"The Iranian foreign ministry has summoned Kenya's Ambassador to Tehran Ruqayyah Ahmed Subu to protest at a Kenyan court's ruling against two Iranian prisoners," said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Sunday. 

The two prisoners, Ahmed Abolfat'hi and Seyyed Mansour Mousavi, were arrested in June 2012 and convicted a year later of planning attacks and possessing 15 kg of military-grade RDX explosives. They were sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2016, a Kenyan judge reduced the life sentences given to the two Iranians convicted of planning bomb attacks to 15 years. The men were scheduled to be freed before the Supreme Court upheld their sentences on Friday.

Kenyan investigators have expressed concerns that the two men may have had links to the Quds Force, an elite extra-territorial special forces arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iran lodged a formal complaint with the Kenyan ambassador in Tehran on Saturday.

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