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Four found guilty in murder of Campbell Bridges
Four of those involved in the deadly 2009 attack on renowned gemologist Campbell Bridges have been found guilty by a Kenyan court, a Scottish newspaper reports.
Mombassa, Kenya--Four of those involved in the deadly 2009 attack on renowned gemologist Campbell Bridges have been found guilty by a Kenyan court, a Scottish newspaper reports.
According to The Herald, Justice Maureen Odero convicted Mohamed Dadi, Alfred Njuruka, Samuel Mwachala and James Chacha in the murder of the 71-year-old Bridges, who is credited with discovering tsavorite in Africa in the 1960s and had been mining in Kenya since the 1970s.
Bridges and his son Bruce were returning to their camp on Aug. 11, 2009 when they, along with four of their security guards, were ambushed by a large group and Bridges was stabbed to death. The attack came in the wake of complaints the Bridges family had been filing with authorities since 2006 about illegal mining on their concession.
Prior to the attack, Bridges had received death threats.
In a statement shared with National Jeweler, the Bridges family expressed gratification for the four convictions. “It will hopefully send a message that lawlessness in Kenya will not be tolerated,” the statement reads.
The family also thanked all those key to winning the conviction, including the Kenya Police Department, the country’s Department of Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Embassy in Kenya and the British High Commission, as well as the Kenya Chamber of Mines for its support.
The Bridges, however, said that they believe that there was “more than enough evidence” to convict the additional three perpetrators originally charged but later acquitted in the case, and that there were two politicians of “high position” involved as well as “several known assassins” that remain at large.
The Herald reports that a man known as Mr. Salat is among those who remains at large, and Bruce Bridges told the newspaper that this is the individual who fatally stabbed his father.
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