Nigeria Convicts Iranian Of Arms Smuggling

Reputed Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps member Azim Aghajani (right) is led away after his conviction for illegal arms trafficking in the Federal High Court in Lagos on May 13.

A court in Nigeria has sentenced an alleged member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to five years in prison for arms smuggling.

The Lagos court handed down the sentence on May 13 to Iranian citizen Azim Aghajani and his Nigerian accomplice, Ali Abbas Jega.

The two men were detained in 2010 at the Lagos port after officials found that 13 containers labeled as construction materials actually contained mortars, rifle ammunition, and other weaponry.

Aghajani was added to a UN blacklist last year as a Revolutionary Guards member tied to Iranian support for terrorism.

He has also been listed by the United States.

Aghajani denies any association with the Revolutionary Guards and insists he was in Nigeria as a private businessman.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP