Sarah Wairimu, the prime suspect in Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen, has accused the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti and two local media journalists of contempt of a valid court order.
In an application filed at the High Court on Tuesday, Ms Wairimu wants the court to jail Kinoti, senior Nation editor John Kamau and The Star reporter Juma Victor Owiti for six months for defying the court order issued by Justice Jessie Lesiit.
The order, which was issued on September 16, barred parties in the case and the press from publishing details touching on investigations into Cohen’s death.
The businesswoman also wants the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (third respondent) and that of the DCI (first respondent) fined for contempt.
According to Wairimu, Kinoti, who is listed as the second respondent, “prosecuted” the case against her on the media after finding Cohen’s body at his Kitisuru home on September 13.
This, according to Wairimu, wrongly depicted her as a cold-hearted murderer, as the DCI boss didn’t have any evidence linking her to businessman’s death.
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“…[ On September 13], the 1st and 2nd respondents, knowing well that there was no iota of evidence directly or indirectly linking the applicant to the murder of her husband, continued to prosecute their trumped up case against the applicant through the print and electronic media by going into a frenzy of: malicious and unsubstantiated allegations; unsolicited commentaries; uninformed opinions; and unverified theories, all calculated to depict the applicant as a cold-hearted originator, facilitator and executor of her husband’s initial disappearance and subsequent murder,” Wairimu said in the application.
John Kamau, listed as the fifth respondent, is accused of writing a “damning article” which cast aspersions on the innocence of the applicant.
Read Also: Tob Cohen’s Widow Sarah Wairimu Granted Sh2 Million Cash Bail
Ms Wairimu says the article titled “Inside web of lies that led police to Cohen’s body ” was published on September 16 in page 4 and 5 of the Daily Nation.
The author, according to Wairimu, falsely claimed that she had coached her workers to lie on circumstances that led to Cohen’s disappearance and death.
The suspect further accuses Kinoti of holding her matrimonial property with the aim of handing it over on a “silver platter” to interested parties including the deceased’s siblings.
This, she says, was confirmed in an article published in The Star newspaper on September 16 titled Cohen gave sister Ksh400 million will.
The story was written by the fourth respondent, John victor Owiti.
She further refers to tweets published by the DCI on September 18, stating that perpetrators of murder can not inherit the deceased’s property.
“The first respondent purported to give an unsolicited and uninformed opinion which assumes the guilt of the applicant, ” the court papers read in part.
Read Also: Sarah Wairimu Whisked Away From Cohen’s Burial As Crowd Hurled Stones At Car
Ms Wairimu was charged with murder on October 4 and has since been released on Ksh2 million cash bail.
Another suspect, Peter Karanja, the estranged husband of Gilgil MP Martha Wangari, on Friday last week entered a not guilty plea.
Cohen’s body was retrieved from an underground water tank at his Kitisuru home on Friday, September 13, nearly two months after he went missing.
He was interred on Tuesday, September 24, at the Jewish cemetery in Nairobi.
The pre-trial for the tycoon’murder case will begin on October 30.
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