Accused kidnappers in Edmonton court
Businessman allegedly assaulted
EDMONTON — Two men accused of kidnapping and assaulting a well-known local businessman appeared in court Thursday morning.
Raheel Ghias Khalon and David Chipere, both clad in orange overalls with their legs and arms shackled, mostly stared at the floor in court. Their bail was not addressed.
The pair is charged in connection with the alleged kidnapping of real estate developer Alex Davidoff, who was reported missing after not showing up to a business meeting Sunday night.
Davidoff, 62, is president of the Glenora Skyline Develop- ment Corp., which is building a multi-tower, high-end highrise in Glenora. The project went through a rare four days of public hearings at City Hall before being approved.
The businessman was rescued by police Tuesday morning from a home in Sherwood Park. Police said he had been assaulted and was admitted to hospital for his injuries.
Khalon, 26, and Chipere, 41, have been charged with kidnapping, extortion, assault causing bodily harm, confinement and uttering threats. They will return to court Aug. 7.
This is not the first time Davidoff has been involved in a sensational criminal case — he pleaded guilty in 1992 to several charges related to a bizarre series of attacks on other businessmen.
He was known in Edmonton at the time as a prominent city jeweller whose last name was Davydov. His downfall read “like a dime-store detective novel,” a Journal reporter wrote at the time.
Davidoff hired a group of incompetent thugs to steal jewels and terrorize his enemies, according to reports on his court proceedings. One of the thugs, known as Mr. X in court, would plead guilty to 88 serious offences and receive a 20year prison term in the early 1990s for various crimes.
But he proved an inept enforcer for Davidoff. He ordered an attack on a local real estate developer with a stun gun that didn’t work. Later, Mr. X ordered the arson of the same man’s store, but the assigned arsonist couldn’t smash through the store window.
Next came the attempted robbery of a diamond merchant who was visiting Edmonton. Mr. X and an accomplice rented the room beside the merchant’s suite at a local hotel but couldn’t break through the wall. The men then waited for the merchant to leave his room and attacked him — but forgot to grab $250,000 worth of gems in the man’s briefcase.
Davidoff pleaded guilty to counselling others to commit arson, assault and robbery.
“The evidence, although there is an element of Keystone (Kops) criminality, is serious,” said the judge at Davidoff’s sentencing.
He was handed a 31/2-year prison term, but served seven months. More than a decade later, Davidoff filed a $5-million lawsuit in which he claimed he was innocent of the criminal charges to which he had pleaded guilty.
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.