A South African court has
convicted Nigerian national Henry Okah of charges related to
"terrorism", including bombings that killed 12 people in the Nigerian
capital, Abuja, on independence day 2010.
"I have come to the
conclusion that the state proved beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of the
accused," said Judge Neels Claassen, handing down the verdict in the South
Gauteng High Court on Monday.
Okah was found guilty of
masterminding attacks including twin car bombings that killed 12 people in
Abuja on October 1, 2010 and two explosions in March 2010 in the southern
Nigerian city of Warri, a major hub of the oil-rich Delta
region.
He faces a life term at minimum
when the court hands him the sentence between January 31 and February 1.
The armed Nigerian group, the
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which in 2010 was a
well-equipped group fighting for a greater share of the Delta oil wealth,
claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Although Okah has denied leading
MEND, saying he just sympathised with their goals, court documents referred to
him as its leader.
"[MEND] has been known in
the past to blow up or disrupt oil installations and pipelines in the oil rich
Niger delta area,".
"They are also known to take
a lot of foreign hostages and ask for ransom," she added.
Documentary evidence of his role
in the group included handwritten notes by his wife.
MEND has a history of staging
fierce attacks on oil facilities and kidnapped oil expatriate workers in
Nigeria's oil-rich southern Delta.
He holds permanent residence in
South Africa, but is known to have travelled back and forth between the two
countries.
In 2009 he was freed from a jail
in the central Nigerian city of Jos where he was being held for treason and
gun-running.
His liberation came in the wake
of an amnesty deal offered by the government to thousands of Delta fighters.
The court said he then left for
South Africa, but returned to Nigeria in early 2010, sponsoring the purchase of
cars which were modified to allow the fitting of explosive devices.
Eight months later the cars were
used to bomb independence day festivities that were attended by several foreign
heads of state, including South African President Jacob Zuma.
Okah have denied involvement in
the Abuja blasts, saying the charges were politically motivated. He was also
accused of being one of the spokesmen for MEND.