FIVE foreigners among the two South Africans, two Chinese nationals and a Ugandan have been arrested for attempted murder in an assassination attack against a Chinese national in Chingola.
This comes after the Zambia Police Service unearthed a crime syndicate in which two Chinese nationals allegedly hired two South African nationals and a Ugandan to murder their fellow Chinese national in Chingola.
Police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga said this is in relation to an attempted murder case which occurred on March 2, 2022 at around 08:30 hours at Lian-an mining Limited Chingola in which Zhang Lian-an aged 45 a Chinese national and the proprietor of Lian-an Mining Limited was shot at three times in the chest.
Mr Hamoonga said investigations instituted into the matter led to the arrest of five suspects namely, Henry Kwotek 40 a Ugandan of 44 Ponana street in Gauteng of South Africa, Lucky Singate 32 a South African of 30 Ngcola Kwanobuale, Mawande Lungelo Qnoqnoza 34 a South African of 41 Mqolomba in South Africa.
He said the three suspects were interviewed and they led to the arrest of Cheng Moyn and Zhuang Pingzhen aged 47 of unknown house number in Livingstone.
“The trio stated that they were hired by Cheng Moyn from South Africa to come to Zambia and assassinate the victim and that he was the one who provided two fire arms one of which was used in the commission of the crime. A firearm with an erased serial number was recovered from Henry Kwoteck,” he said.
Mr Hamoonga said the suspects further revealed that after the shooting incident they were paid K200, 000 by Cheng Moyn for carrying out the assignment.
Mr Hamoonga further said investigations revealed that Henry Kwoteck had fraudulently acquired a Zambian National registration card in the names of Henry Banda on April15, 2022 at 11:00 hours.
“An identification parade was conducted in which eight witnesses were called and among them one witness a driver who was booked from Livingstone to Kitwe and finally Chingola positively identified the three suspects namely Henry Kwoteck, Lucky Singate and Mawande Lungelo Qnoqnoza while the other seven witnesses positively identified Lucky Singate the hitman who shot the victim,” he said.
He said Kwoteck, Moyn, Singate, Qnoqnoza and Pingzen have been jointly charged for attempted murder.
Mr Hamoonha said Kwoteck has further been charged for two offences of found in possession of prohibited article and making a false document.
He said the suspects are detained in police custody and will appear in court soon.
Mr Hamoonga further said investigations have also revealed that the five suspects are believed to have been behind the aggravated robberies involving Chinese nationals.
“Zambia Police wishes to warn foreign nationals coming into the country with a sole purpose of coming to commit crimes that Zambia is not such a destination where they can come and commit crime and expect to flee.
As Zambia police we will not relent in dealing with such criminal elements as we stand ready to ensure that they face the full wrath of the law,” he said.
(Mwebantu)