West News Wire: A Kenyan court has found a Venezuelan diplomat guilty of killing the Latin American country’s acting ambassador at her residence in a posh Nairobi neighborhood almost ten years ago.
Olga Fonseca was killed in July 2012, and Dwight Sagaray, the embassy’s first secretary, was held responsible for the crime, according to Judge Roselyn Korir’s decision on Wednesday.
The court also found guilty three Kenyan citizens who had been indicted alongside Sagaray, claiming they had collaborated on a murderous scheme.
The court ruled that the arrest warrant for another suspect should continue to be in effect even though he fled the scene of the crime.
Sagaray, who wore a suit and tie in the dock, clasped his hands and held them against his face when the verdict was read. Sagaray could be tried for the murder because he did not enjoy diplomatic immunity after Venezuela waived it following the crime, the court ruled.
Fonseca, 57, was found strangled in her bedroom less than two weeks into her posting to Nairobi, which followed the abrupt departure of the previous ambassador after he was accused by his domestic staff of sexual harassment.
Sagaray, who had been heading the mission before the arrival of Fonseca, was angered by her presence since he wanted to continue overseeing the embassy, the court found.
He intended to be the main beneficiary of the crime, Korir said, adding there was evidence he had tried to interfere with Fonseca’s ability to take over as the head of the embassy before she was killed.
“From the evidence, it is clear that the first accused [Sagaray] resisted the taking of over of the embassy by Ms Fonseca,” local daily the Nation reported quoting Korir.
Sagaray and his co-accused will be sentenced at a later date, the judge said.
