Pair accused of kidnapping Edmonton businessman

SHERWOOD PARK — Residents in a quiet Sherwood Park subdivision were wakened early Tuesday by a phone call from police.

Bobby Sandhu and his family were asleep when their phone suddenly rang at 6 a.m., sending the family into a panic.

“I thought it was a tornado warning or something like that,” Sandhu said.

Instead, police warned Sandhu that the house across from him, on Rural Road 233 in Strathcona County, was about to be raided.

“They advised everyone to go to their basement,” he said.

Police allege well-known Edmonton developer Alexander Davidoff was held captive in the nearby house after going missing Sunday night.

The 62-year-old is behind the Glenora Skyline project at 142nd Street and Stony Plain Road, which some neighbours opposed as being too tall.

Court documents indicate Davidoff was last seen by his family at 5:30 p.m. Sunday when he left for a business meeting. He was reported missing later that night after he didn’t show up for another meeting.

Raheel Ghias Khalon, 26, and David Chipere, 41, were charged with kidnapping, extortion, assault causing bodily harm, confinement and uttering threats in relation to events that occurred Sunday involving Davidoff, his granddaughter and grandson.

Court documents allege the men threatened “to kill him and his grandchildren,” while the extortion charge is related to attempts to obtain money from Davidoff.

The men made a brief court appearance Wednesday and were scheduled to return Thursday for a bail hearing. Both men were known to police and neither was listed in court documents as having a fixed address.

Police said Davidoff is “recovering.” He was hospitalized for his injuries, but has since been released.

Davidoff is president of the Glenora Skyline Development Corp., which is building a multi-tower, high-end highrise in Glenora.

Davidoff was previously a city jeweller who, in 1992, was convicted of counselling others to rob another diamond merchant in the city and counselling others to beat and burn the office of a local real-estate developer. He was previously known as Alex Davydov.

He was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison for the crimes, but served seven months.

In 2003, Davidoff filed a $5-million lawsuit in which he claimed he was innocent of the criminal charges that he pleaded guilty to more than a decade before. He alleged police and prosecutors had lied and withheld evidence during their investigations.

The civil suit, however, was dismissed for being filed too late, and law enforcement officials denied his allegations.