Nairobi – A court in Kenya on Thursday sentenced a terrorist to death.
This is the first capital punishment for a terrorist since the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab began targeting Kenya in 2011.
Daily Nation and other media reported that Thabit Jamaldin Yahya was found guilty of murder for his involvement in an attack at a popular club in the port city of Mombasa in May 2012.
The attack, which involved random shooting and grenade blasts, killed a security guard.
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Kenya had convicted terrorists on charges that included weapons possession and attack-planning, but the murder conviction is the first for a terrorist since al-Shabaab first began targeting Kenya in 2011.
Terrorism suspects often blow themselves up, are killed by security forces, or escape, thus avoiding trial.
Yahya is believed to be a member of al-Shabaab, which had frequently attacked Kenya after the country sent troops to neighbouring Somalia to help it combat the Islamists in 2011.
Kenya has had thousands of people sentenced to death in recent years, but the death sentences are routinely commuted to life imprisonments, with no executions carried out since the 1980s. (dpa/NAN)