A Kenya cult leader has been charged with terrorism after the death of hundreds of children due to starvation.
The primary suspect was identified as Paul Mackenzie and he has been charged along with 94 others over the deaths of his followers. The bodies of the victims have been exhumed from the Shakahola forest and number 429.
Mackenzie, a self-proclaimed pastor, was arrested by law enforcement personnel last April after the bodies of his victims were discovered in the forest near the Indian Ocean. The charges against the suspects were announced during an appearance before a court in the southeastern city of Mombasa.
The cult leader and his co-defendants have denied the charges during their appearance before Judge Joe Omido. They are scheduled to be back in court on Feb. 8 for a bond hearing related to the case.
Authorities argue that Mackenzie, who is the head of the Good News International Church, incited his followers in southeastern Kenya to starve themselves and their children to death. This was in an attempt to go to heaven before the world supposedly ends, as per Aljazeera.
The bodies of the victims were retrieved over several months of exhumations across tens of thousands of acres of forestry. Autopsies also revealed that the majority of the dead died of hunger but there were others, including children, who appeared to have been strangled, beaten, or suffocated.
Court documents regarding the case described Good News International Ministries as "an organized criminal group (which) engaged in organized criminal activities." Thereby, the ministries endangered the lives of other people and led to the death of 429 members and followers.
Officials also charged Mackenzie with "organized criminal activity" and he as well as other suspects pleaded "not guilty" to charges of radicalization. His pre-trial detention in Mombasa was extended on several occasions after the prosecution repeatedly asked for more time to probe the case.
The Arrest of a Kenya Cult Leader
A Kenya court also ordered the 30-year-old cult leader and 30 of his associates to undergo mental health evaluations before they are charged with the murder of 191 children. Mackenzie was also said to have marketed Shakahola forest to his followers as an evangelical Christian sanctuary, according to NDTV.
The judge who ordered the mental evaluations, Mugure Thande, gave prosecutors until Feb. 6 to ensure that Mackenzie and his co-defendants are fit to stand trial. Prosecutors noted that the suspects will also be charged with "subjecting a child to torture."
In October, a Senate commission of inquiry reported that the primary suspect had faced charges back in 2017 for his extreme preaching. However, it noted that the criminal justice system failed to deter the heinous activities of the cult leader.
Following the previous charges, he was acquitted of radicalization in that same year which was brought for illegally providing school teaching. The defendant rejected the formal education system that he claimed was not in line with the Bible.
A lawyer for the defendant said that the self-proclaimed pastor is cooperating with law enforcement personnel regarding the investigation, said Yahoo News.
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