Prayer leader gets two-year jail term after bogus kidnap

LONDON // A Muslim community leader has been sentenced to two years in prison for falsely claiming he was abducted at knifepoint by white extremists. The alleged kidnap by Noor Ramjanally made headlines last summer, heightening racial tensions and leading to calls for the government to establish a task force to combat Islamophobia in Britain. It has now emerged, however, that Ramjanally, 36, made up the entire incident. A police investigation showed he had actually been shopping at the time he was supposedly abducted.

He was sentenced to jail on Friday by a court in Chelmsford, Essex, where prosecutors revealed that Ramjanally was also being investigated on suspicion of stealing from a mosque in east London. He is also being investigated for suspected benefit fraud and overstaying his visitor's visa to Britain by a decade. Ramjanally was not in court to hear the verdict - he has fled to his native Mauritius, even sending police a taunting e-mail from the Indian Ocean saying: "I am enjoying the sun."

The authorities will now decide whether or not to seek his extradition. After a jury found Ramjanally guilty in absentia of perverting the course of justice, Judge Karen Walden Smith described his crime as the "worst type" of justice perversion because it had inflamed racial tensions and wasted public money and police time. Ramjanally, who founded a prayer group in a local community centre in Loughton, Essex, to the east of London, told police last August that he had been abducted from his home at knifepoint by "two burly white men".

He claimed that he had been bundled into the boot of a car and driven to a nearby forest, where he was told to abandon the prayer group or face the consequences. Ramjanally told reporters from national newspapers and the BBC at the time that he had feared for his life. "It was very shocking. I was still shaking when I got inside. It's killing me," he said. The attack was blamed on members of the far-right British National Party, who had been campaigning against Ramjanally's prayer group.

Police investigated the abduction as a race crime. However, unbeknown to Ramjanally, they had covertly installed a CCTV camera outside his home after previous incidents when he claimed to have received threatening notes and phone calls. Video footage revealed that, far from being abducted, he was picked up by a taxi and taken to a local do-it-yourself store. Further footage from the store showed him casually walking the aisles at the time he was supposed to be undergoing his "life-threatening" ordeal in the forest.

Chief Supt Simon Williams of Essex police said yesterday: "We may never know the true reasons behind Ramjanally's claim that he was abducted. He has done a gross disservice to the local community in Loughton by suggesting that there were people willing to commit serious crimes against minority groups. "Now that his claims have been exposed as being false, I hope that my officers can continue with their excellent work in building contacts and confidence amongst all of the population of the Loughton area."

Ramjanally denied any wrongdoing when he appeared in court in February. He was freed on bail pending his trial and then fled to Mauritius. Ramjanally initially arrived in the UK in 1999 on a six-month tourist visa. UK Border Agency officials raided his apartment after he disappeared in February. They discovered fake passports and other false identity documents. Ramjanally's wife is also being investigated over allegations of fraudulent benefit claims.

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