KUALA LUMPUR, July 6: A Malaysian court has sentenced a Pakistani man to seven years in jail for kidnapping and robbing a senior South African diplomat last year, an official said on Wednesday. Deputy High Commissioner Nicky Scholtz was forced into a car as he walked along a Kuala Lumpur street in May 2004, robbed and held prisoner for several days before being freed.

“The Sessions Court imposed a three-year jail term on Nisar Ahmad Khan, 36, for wrongfully confining the former South African deputy high commissioner... and another four years for stealing his personal items,” a court official said.

Judge Akhtar Tahir, who handed down the sentence on Monday after Nisar pleaded guilty, said the kidnapper had tarnished the image of Malaysia.

“Although he helped police to arrest his accomplices and volunteered to testify against them, the offence is serious,” Akhtar was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

The diplomat, who had arrived in Malaysia only weeks earlier, was abducted outside a hotel by a group of men.—afp