» Nigerian Court Jails Russians, Japenese And 10 Other Foreigners For Oil Smuggling «

A Nigerian court on Friday jailed 14 foreign sailors from
Russia, Ukraine, Philippine and Japan between two and five
years for unlawful dealing in petroleum products in the
country.
The federal high court in Lagos found the suspects guilty
of illegally transporting 1,738 tonnes of crude oil and some
4,500 tonnes of petrol, also called gasoline, in their vessel
MT Anukpet Emerald.
Judge Ibrahim Buba sentenced 11 of the 14 foreigners to
two years' jail or alternatively pay a fine of two million
naira (10,000 dollars) each.
The remaining three -- all Russians -- were given five
years each in absentia without an option of fine for jumping
bail.
The court also ordered that the vessel and the seized
petroleum products be forfeited to the Nigerian
government.
The Nigerian navy arrested the sailors and the vessel in
February 2015 and handed the case to the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.
It was not immediately clear if the products onboard the
vessel were to be taken out of Nigeria and if so, to which
country they were headed.
Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer loses billions of
dollars each year from the theft of crude from sabotaged
pipelines and illegal refining of oil products.
The oil is sold on the black market, depriving the
continent's most populous state of an estimated $6 billion
a year in lost revenue.
Convictions for oil smuggling are common but in most
cases the offenders get away with a fine.