A KENYAN court on Thursday charged the leader of a starvation cult with terrorism over the deaths of more than 400 of his followers.
Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and 94 other suspects pleaded “not guilty” to charges of radicalisation.
The cult leader was also charged with “organised criminal activity”, according to documents from the Mombasa court seen by AFP.
Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in a case that provoked horror across the world.
He was arrested last April after bodies were discovered in the Shakahola forest near the Indian Ocean.
Autopsies revealed that the majority of the 429 victims had died of hunger.
But others, including children, appeared to have been strangled, beaten or suffocated.
Mackenzie’s pre-trial detention in the coastal city of Mombasa was extended on several occasions as the prosecution asked for more time to probe the case.
But last week a court warned the authorities that it would release the former taxi driver unless charges were filed within 14 days.
Prosecutors are also due to conduct mental health assessments to establish if 31 suspects including Mackenzie were fit to stand trial for murder at a court in the coastal town of Malindi.
A judge at the Malindi court on Wednesday ordered the 31 defendants to file pleas on February 6.
The office of the director of public prosecutions said on Tuesday that the state had “sufficient evidence to prosecute 95 suspects” and charge them with murder, manslaughter and terrorism.
