4 Sentenced in Abduction of Nigerian Exile in London

LONDON — A Nigerian and three Israelis were sentenced to from 10 to 14 years in prison today after confessing that they drugged Nigeria’s most wanted exile and tried to smuggle him from London to Lagos in an aircraft baggage crate.

None of the four accused men showed emotion when sentence was passed, but the wife of one of the Israelis, Felix Abitbol, was led sobbing from the public gallery.

The bizarre scheme collapsed last July when customs officers opened the wooden crate at Stansted Airport and found the unconscious figure of former Nigerian Transport Minister Umaru Dikko, accused of massive corruption in his homeland.

Judge Anthony McCowan, presiding at London’s Old Bailey court, told the four men:

“It must be made absolutely clear that the courts in this country will take an extremely grave view of any attempt to abduct by force and take overseas against his will a person lawfully living in this country.”

The judge jailed Israeli ringleader Alexander Barak for 14 years and former Nigerian Army Maj. Mohammed Yusufu for 12 years. Two other Israelis, Abitbol and Dr. Lev-Arie Shapiro, were sent to prison for 10 years each.

During the two-day trial the court heard testimony alleging that both the Nigerian government and the Israeli secret service, Mossad, had been implicated in the abortive plot.