Three jailed in UK for kidnap of music producer
A court in Wales on Friday jailed three men for eight years for having kidnapped a Jewish-Israeli music producer “motivated by events taking place elsewhere in the world”.
Faiz Shah, 23, Mohammad Comrie, 23, and Elijah Ogunnubi-Sime, 20, tricked Itay Kashti into travelling hundreds of miles to west Wales, where they kidnapped him, handcuffing him to a radiator.
Kashti, in a victim impact statement, said the incident “felt like my own personal October 7”.
The gang plotted the attack on a Telegram group chat and carried it out on August 26 last year.
Swansea Crown Court heard on Friday that the gang used false identities to rent out a remote cottage and arrange a taxi to pick up Kashti, who thought he was meeting people from a music production company.
They attacked the victim and taxi driver on arrival, but the taxi driver was able to escape and raise the alarm.
Police found the three men hiding in nearby fields and they pleaded guilty to charges of kidnap.
Judge Catherine Richards jailed all three for eight years and one month. The attack, she said, was “motivated by events taking place elsewhere in the world.
“He was an entirely innocent, hard-working music producer that you had identified as a victim based on your understanding of his wealth and his Jewish heritage,” she added.
Describing his ordeal, Kashti said: “I was kicked to the head several times, handcuffed to a radiator and forced to lie down on the floor.
“I was threatened and told if I were to try and escape, I’d be killed,” he added.
