Nigerian Court Jails Iranian Accused of Importing Arms

According to Punch, Azim Aghajani, a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has been found guilty of smuggling weapons into Lagos and sentenced to five years in prison by a Federal High Court in the city. A Nigerian, Ali Jega was also convicted alongside Azim Aghajani.

The Nigerian Customs Service in 2010 made a seizure of 13 containers loaded with rockets and grenades, shipped in from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The shipment including rockets and other explosives were hidden in containers of building materials.

Court documents revealed that the arms were to be re-exported to The Gambia.
The Judge who presided over the two-year trial, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, found the Iranian guilty and sentenced him to prison for five years.

The men were said to have, without licence, been “in control of bombs and grenade categorized as prohibited firearms under Item 4 of Part 1 of the Schedule to the Firearms Act, Cap F28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and contrary to Section 3 of the Constitution.”

They were also said to have been in control of rockets categorized as prohibited firearms without licence.