Itay Kashti. Photo: YouTube screenshot

Three men in the United Kingdom were each sentenced to eight years and one month in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to kidnapping and violently assaulting an Israeli Jewish music producer.

Faiz Shah, 23, from Bradford; Mohammad Comrie, 23, from Leeds; and Elijah Ogunnubi-Sime, 20, from Wallington were arrested on Aug. 26, 2024, and were sentenced at Swansea Crown Court in Wales for the abduction and brutal assault of the London-based producer and composer Itay Kashti. Shah and Comrie were both sent to jail while Ogunnubi-Sime was sent to a young offender institution, according to the BBC.

Judge Catherine Richards said the kidnapping and assault in August 2024 was “motivated by events taking place elsewhere in the world,” referring to the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East.

“[Kashti] was an entirely innocent, hard-working music producer that you had identified as a victim based on your understanding of his wealth and his Jewish heritage,” Richards said during the sentencing on Friday. “It seems to me that you justified your actions against the victim based on his background, as if he was less worthy of your respect and compassion. That is utterly abhorrent.”

“This is an absolutely horrific crime. It is an enormous relief that Mr. Kashti was able to escape, given that similar abductions of Jews from France to Gaza have ended in murder,” a spokesperson for the British charity Campaign Against Antisemitism said in a released statement. “This is what ‘globalizing the Intifada’ looks like: Jews being subjected to violence motivated by religious hatred. We are grateful to the police in Wales and to the court for taking a stand. This sentence is a message both to prospective perpetrators of such heinous crimes and also to the authorities elsewhere in Britain, who have turned too much of a blind eye to incitement to violence against Jews.”

The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters also applauded Friday’s sentencing. CST said it has worked closely to support Kashti and his family in the aftermath of the incident, including providing security advice and psychological and emotional support.

“This is a shocking and deeply troubling crime that the police have confirmed also had an antisemitic element due to the victim’s identity as an Israeli Jew,” CST said in a statement on X. “The victim suffered a terrible ordeal in which he was kidnapped, handcuffed, seriously assaulted, and even threatened with death by the perpetrators. In her sentencing remarks, the judge confirmed that all three defendants were motivated by racial and religious hostility in choosing the victim.”

Kashti’s kidnappers lured him to a rented house in rural Wales by using false identities and pretending to be from a music production company that was inviting him to a music recording workshop. They planned to kidnap their victim, extort money from him, and they also tried to source ketamine to drug Kashti, said prosecutor Craig Jones, who added that there was “clear political and religious motivation” to the attack because of Kashti’s Jewish and Israeli identity. Kashti took a taxi from London to the rented house on Aug. 26, 2024, and immediately upon arrival, he and his innocent taxi driver were attacked. The taxi driver was hit in the face but managed to escape while Kashti was chained and handcuffed, and brutally assaulted.

The music producer eventually managed to free himself from the chains, located his phone, and ran to hide in nearby bushes. He called his wife, who then called the police, as did the taxi driver. With the help of a police helicopter, officers found the three suspects hiding in a nearby field. Kashti suffered swollen and bruised eyelids, a swollen nose and bruising to his back, knees and leg and a cut to the scalp, according to BBC.

Kashti said his kidnapping and assault “felt like my own personal Oct. 7,” a reference to the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attacks that took place in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which terrorists murdered 1,200 people and took hundreds of hostages, many of whom remain in captivity.

“I was kicked to the head several times, handcuffed to a radiator, and forced to lie down on the floor,” he said. “I was threatened and told if I were to try and escape, I’d be killed. The awful attack of the 7th of October was flashing through my mind as I lay restrained on the floor in handcuffs. I can’t deny the strong and devastating impact this brutal and unnecessary attack has had on my life. My physical injuries lasted for weeks, and I have been suffering with anxiety, which I have never experienced before.”

DS Gareth Jones, an officer in the case, said the incident “was thoroughly planned and was sophisticated in elements.”

“Securing justice for the victim has been our priority throughout,” he noted. “This sentence today reflects the severity of this offense – and we hope it gives the victim a sense of justice. We thank him for his strength and patience whilst we carried out a thorough investigation into what was an extraordinary crime.”