US tourist mistaken for international terrorist

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

An American family whose Kenyan holiday was ruined when a policeman mistook their 15-year-old daughter for an international terrorist has been offered an all-expenses-paid trip as compensation.

An American family whose Kenyan holiday was ruined when a policeman mistook their 15-year-old daughter for an international terrorist has been offered an all-expenses-paid trip as compensation.

A statement from the Kenyan government said the teenage holidaymaker was “harassed by police in Mlolongo”, outside of the capital Nairobi, “on accusations of looking like” Samantha Lewthwaite, widely known as the “White Widow”.

Kenya’s interior minister, Joseph Ole Lenku, announced that the government would sponsor a “fully-paid holiday for the family”, and that police were investigating the incident.

British fugitive Lewthwaite was married to Germaine Lindsay, one of four Islamist suicide bombers who participated in the 7/7 bombings on the London Underground in 2005, killing 52 people.

The 30-year-old Muslim convert has been linked to Somalia’s al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shebaab rebels, who have launched a string of attacks in Kenya, including the assault on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall that claimed at least 67 lives a year ago.

She is wanted in Kenya on charges of being in possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony dating back to December 2011. She is also the subject of an Interpol “red notice” warrant for her detention issued at Kenya’s request.

There has been no confirmed sighting of Lewthwaite since she gave escaped from Kenyan police in Mombasa in 2011, reportedly using a false South African passport.

Last month Kenyan detectives hunting her said the trail had gone cold.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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