An alleged plan to bomb the Israeli embassy in Nigeria by three Lebanese suspects standing trial for alleged illegal possession of fireams was yesterday revealed at a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
Eight DVD video clips of interview sessions by the Department of State Services held separately with suspected terrorists played during the court session revealed that Mustapha Fawaz, Abdallah Tahini and Talal Ahmad Roda confirmed that one of the suspects took aerial photographs of strategic buildings in Abuja from atop Sheraton Hotel building.
The 8 DVD copies were tendered before Justice Ademola Adeniyi by Simon Egede, Director of Public Prosecutions, on behalf of the federal government, and were admitted in evidence by the court.
Though the defence counsel, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), did not object to the admissibility of the eight DVD discs and the statement of the prosecuting witness for the purpose of relevancy, however, he said he would challenge the credibility of the DVDs.
Following the court’s granting of Egede’s application to play the video clips of the interview sessions with the suspects, the prosecuting witness, a technical staff of the Department of State Service, tagged DSS 10, was called upon to play the DVDs for the court.
In the first video clip played on a projector, DSS 10, in a hood, identified the suspects being interviewed as Talal Rhoda, the third accused person who was found and arrested at No. 3, Gaya Road, Kano, on May 26, 201
The interview session revealed that Rhoda admitted to having knowledge of the existence of a bunker underground in the house he was found and arrested in Kano, just as the video also showed his admission that he serviced the weapons hidden underneath the bunker from time to time.
Egede, who highlighted some points in the interview session, said, “The videos confirmed the unauthorised and illegal surveillance carried out by the first accused person along with his foreign collaborators, where they captured different strategic buildings in Abuja from the top of Sheraton Hotel building.
“The video was played and it also revealed that those foreign collaborators were taken round Abuja, searching for the Israeli embassy.
“The video also confirmed that they have surveillance camera in Amigo Supermarket where they captured their customers, especially foreigners and, specifically, Israeli customers.
“The video also confirmed that the 3rd accused person was resident at No. 3, Gaya Road, Kano, and was aware of the underground bunker and was also in charge of servicing the weapons and armoury from time to time.
“The video stated all these, so, this in a way has confirmed all that we stated in our count of charges and the statement of all our witnesses”.
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