A British man has been fined $7,000 for a security breach at Mogadishu airport after failing to disclose tear gas canisters, a bullet-proof vest and seven rounds of ammunition in his baggage, a court said on Tuesday.
Anthony Thomas Cox, 48, who had been working for a private foreign security company in Mogadishu, was arrested at Mogadishu airport on 19th January 2019 as he was boarding a flight to Addis Ababa city.
He was charged with endangering the public safety at Aden Abdulle International Airport by Benadir regional court in Mogadishu which identified the name of the man as Andrew Braian Irlam.
Few days after his arrest, Cox survived ‘jihadist’ razor-blade attack in Mogadishu Central Prison by suspected Islamist inmates. He sustained a minor cut on to his neck in the averted attempt on his life.
The two men involved were suspected Islamist militants, the deputy governor of Mogadishu Central Prison, Abdikarim Ali Afrah, said after the attack on the British citizen.
One is thought to be a member of Al-Shabab, the other is believed to belong to the Islamic State group – both are fighting Somalia’s UN-backed Federal Government of Somalia based in Mogadishu.
The jail is a heavily fortified facility, where many of the country’s most violent terrorist suspects are held.
British Embassy officials and staff from the US security company Bancroft, which employs Cox, had visited the prison after receiving the information about the incident.
