Widow of a pirate-killed victim supports the convicted murderer

The widow of a man killed by Somali pirates asserts that the guy convicted of his murder is innocent and that she is helping his effort to get freedom.

Armed Somali pirates kidnapped Judith Tebbutt, 67, and her husband David from a Kenyan beach resort in 2011.

Judith was kept as a prisoner for six months while David was fatally shot. After her family paid a ransom, reportedly worth over £600,000, she was eventually freed.

Ali Babitu Kololo, a former hotel employee, was first handed a death sentence in 2013 before having it reduced to life in prison. He is the only person to have ever been found guilty in connection with the murder and abduction.

Now, however, Mrs. Tebutt claims she is in favor of Kololo’s application for release and reproaches Scotland Yard investigators for using him as a “scapegoat” while omitting to identify her real assailants.

He is an innocent guy, in my opinion, and should be released, the former social worker told the Sunday Times.

I’m certain he wasn’t a member of the crew who abducted me that evening.

You might even argue that when he was imprisoned, he served as a sort of a scapegoat. The individuals that abducted me are still at large.

During Kololo’s trial in a Kenyan court, detective chief inspector Neil Hibberd, the leader of the Met’s investigation team, served as the main witness for the prosecution.

An inquiry conducted by the Independent Office for Police Conduct earlier this year concluded that there was “suspicion” that DCI Hibberd, who is now retired, “would have a case to answer for gross misconduct” in connection with the testimony he gave during the trial.

However, Commander Richard Smith of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command said that because Mr. Hibberd, who was subsequently elevated to the position of detective superintendent, departed before December 2017, there was no way to look into the matter.