Mark Ture Somerville and Abdi Raha Aki in Kenyan Custody

Two people being held by the police in Mombasa for allegedly being major financiers of terrorism activities will be deported to the United States.

The couple was flown to Nairobi on Saturday to pick up their two children at their Eastleigh house before being deported.

According to sources close to police investigations, the two suspects have a case to answer in the US where they are said to have escaped from custody about seven years ago.

Two suspects

Mark Ture Somerville (American) and Abdi Raha Aki (Somali) were picked up at a hotel in Bondeni last Thursday night by a special police force that had been trailing them for several weeks.

On Friday night, the two were released from the Coast provincial police headquarters after being questioned over the allegations for more than 14 hours.

According to deputy Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) boss Njiru Mwaniki, the police could not continue holding them since they had committed no offence in Kenya.

The pair was picked up near the hotel where a Kenyan allegedly involved in planning the 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi was arrested in 2002.

The Kenyan, Mohammed Abdulmalik, is currently being held in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.

A source within ATPU said the two suspects had evaded arrest in different countries within and outside Africa.