LAWYERS for the sons of late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha have asked Luxembourg’s administrative tribunal to lift a freeze on assets which he had on deposit in the grand duchy. If the request is approved, some 670m euros ($616.4m) in Abacha’s name at the Warburg Bank in Luxembourg would go to his two sons. Abacha, who died in June 1998, is accused of having diverted some $3bn of public funds into secret accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. The sons’ attorneys argued that Luxembourg could not enforce a Nigerian request for the funds to be frozen, as it had come from the Nigerian state prosecutor, who is also the justice minister. – AFP