Arrest warrant issued for opposition leader

An opposition presidential candidate in Congo, in hospital since clashing with police during a protest last week, has been indicted on charges of hiring mercenaries as part of a plot against the state, a prosecutor said on Thursday. An arrest warrant had been issued for Moise Katumbi, who has denied the accusations that he says […]

An opposition presidential candidate in Congo, in hospital since clashing with police during a protest last week, has been indicted on charges of hiring mercenaries as part of a plot against the state, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
An arrest warrant had been issued for Moise Katumbi, who has denied the accusations that he says are aimed at derailing his campaign to succeed Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila in elections scheduled for November.
“Moise Katumbi, after having been amply heard by the magistrate in charge of his case, has been indicted on the charge of offences against the internal and external security of the state,” Congo’s assistant prosecutor general, Anselme Maduda Muanda Madiela, said in a statement.
Katumbi, a former governor of Congo’s main copper-mining region, has been in hospital for six days, after police fired tear gas at him and his supporters outside the prosecutor’s office in Lubumbashi where he had been questioned.