Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. New details have emerged in the arrest of President Mnangagwa (ED)’s honorary consul to Belarus Alexander Zingman in DRC last week, reports coming from Zingerman himself said he was arrested for plotting a coup against the DRC leader Felix Tshisekedi, Newsday reports.
This was revealed by Zingman who reportedly stated that the DRC government was made to believe he is an arms dealer planning to conduct a coup. Said Zingman:
The Press in DRC was awash with information that we were arms dealers and that we were in that country to train the armed forces to conduct a coup. This detail is showing that everything had been prepared and our arrest and detention was because we were victims of false information provided to DRC security forces
Zingman denied plotting to topple the DRC government and said:
We did not go to DRC to conduct any military deals or training. But we were there at the invitation of Moisi Kapende, who has a foundation called Moisi Kapende Agricultural Foundation, a big agricultural venture in Lubumbashi
He also denied being an arms dealer and said he is not a criminal:
We are not arms dealers or criminals. Our hope is to know who supplied that false information to the DRC security forces. It is good that our business profile was cleared by the DRC security agencies
He also explained his decision to swiftly fly to Harare after his release from prison in DRC yesterday and said:
Our itinerary was that we were coming to Harare the next day at 7am, where we had other business meetings. That is why we came here because it was part of the plans that we had.
He however denied disclosing the nature of the business he was going to conduct in Harare when he was asked about that.
Zingman spent 12 days in a Congolese jail after his arrest on speculation that Tshisekedi was getting rid of former President Joseph Kabila’s allies after their fall out.
More: Newday
