Nigerian dictator’s son wins retrial

The verdict passed by a Geneva court against a son of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha last summer has been quashed and a retrial ordered.

Abba Abacha had appealed against the two-year suspended prison sentence for belonging to a criminal organisation. The Geneva Police Court sentenced him in June.

Now an appeal court has ruled that the original court had “seriously violated” Abacha’s rights by hearing the case in his absence.

One of Abacha’s lawyers, Patrick Hunziker, told the Swiss News Agency on Thursday that his client had wanted to be present, but had not received his visa in time. He had requested a postponement.

“The court did not take account of his request. It considered that he was represented by his lawyers,” Hunziker said.

Following the successful appeal, the whole case will have to start again from the beginning.

As part of the family structure set up by his father, Abacha was found guilty of helping to plunder the Nigerian treasury while Sani Abacha was in power in the 1990s.

The court ordered the confiscation of the sum – thought to be over $400 million (SFr373 million) – which Abba Abacha stashed in the Bahamas and Luxembourg.

The Abacha clan is thought to have diverted a total of about $5 billion from the Nigerian treasury.

It is not clear when the retrial will take place.