Two Israelis who were involved in the bizarre international plot to blow up a bridge in Zambia were given jail sentences yesterday for failing to inform the authorities of their knowledge of the scheme.
Violet Elliot, the wife of an American, Jay Elliot, who masterminded the plot, was given a one-year jail term; and her would-be brother-in-law, former Israeli Air Force Major Ephraim Ronen, was sentenced to three months imprisonment. Both Mrs. Elliot and Ronen were acquitted along with another Israeli, Raphael Tzorani, of actual participation in the plot.
Last week, another defendant, Benjamin Edoth, who admitted the charges, was sentenced to six months in jail after testifying for the prosecution. Edoth was identified as the demolition expert involved in the plot.
Jay Elliot himself was arrested in New York as the key figure in the international plot. The bridge that was to be the target of the conspiracy is vital to the transport of Zambian copper and its destruction would have seriously affected the world supply of the metal. Edoth admitted that the object of the plot was to make money on a potential rise in price of copper.
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