A Kenyan court has found a Venezuelan diplomat guilty of murdering the Latin American country’s acting ambassador at her residence in an exclusive Nairobi neighborhood around ten years ago.
Dwight Sagaray, the embassy’s first secretary, was found guilty of the July 2012 homicide of Olga Fonseca, according to Judge Roselyn Korir’s judgment on Wednesday.
The court also convicted three Kenyan nationals who had been indicted alongside Sagaray, stating they were participating in a shared conspiracy to carry out the murder.
Another suspect who fled after the murder is still at large, and the court ruled that his arrest warrant should stay in effect.
When the verdict was delivered, Sagaray, who was dressed in a suit and tie in the dock, clutched his hands and held them against his face. The court concluded that Sagaray could be charged for murder since he no longer had diplomatic immunity after Venezuela waived it following the incident.
Fonseca, 57, was found dead in her bedroom less than two weeks after arriving in Nairobi, following the abrupt departure of the former ambassador, who was accused of sexual harassment by his domestic staff.
The court found that Sagaray, who had been in charge of the mission before Fonseca’s entrance, was irritated by her presence because he wanted to continue directing the embassy.
He planned to be the primary benefactor of the crime, according to Korir, who added that there was evidence he sought to obstruct Fonseca’s capacity to take over as head of the embassy before she was slain.
“From the evidence, it is clear that the first accused [Sagaray] resisted the taking over of the embassy by Ms Fonseca,” local daily the Nation reported quoting Korir.
Sagaray and his co-accused will be sentenced at a later date, the judge said.