TOM ODULA
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — There is strong evidence that the Kenya Anti-Terror Police Unit has carried out a series of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, an international human rights group said Monday.

Human Rights Watch said that research conducted between November and June documented at least 10 cases of unlawful killings and 10 cases of enforced disappearances carried out by the anti-terror police. The rights group said it also documented 11 cases of mistreatment and harassment of terrorism suspects.

Suspects were shot dead in public places, abducted from vehicles and courtrooms, beaten badly during arrest, detained in isolated blocks and denied contact with their families and access to lawyers, said the report.

The counterterrorism police unit receives significant support and training from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Police Spokesman Masoud Mwinyi was not immediately available for comment.

The United States has not scaled down its assistance to the unit or opened an investigation into its abuses, despite credible allegations of abuse, including in the U.S. annual human rights report on Kenya, the group said.

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