Sudanese jailed for swindling British embassy over bomb warning

KHARTOUM, Aug 20 (AFP) — A Khartoum court jailed a Sudanese national Wednesday for swindling the British embassy out of 200 pounds sterling (320 dollars) for “false information” warning of a bomb plot.

Khartoum North criminal court judge Omar al-Amin sentenced Abu Ubdaidah Ibrahim to three years in prison and ordered him to return the reward money.

Police interrogator Sergeant Major Omar Mahjoub told the court that Ibrahim had told the embassy that a group of foreigners, led by Somali Haroun Fidhail Haroun, a known suspect in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, was planning to attack the mission.

The Sudanese authorities only learnt of the case after the reward money had been paid out for the “false information”, Mahjoub said.