MASERU – Five men including three members of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) have been arrested in connection with a foiled abduction of a Chinese businessman.
news
Nov. 19, 2019
STAFF REPORTER
2 min read
Chinese escapes abduction plot
The suspects who are expected to appear before the Maseru Magistrate’s Court sometime this week were allegedly engaged by another foreigner, a Bangladeshi businessman who is a close business associate of the victim’s.
Three of the suspects aged between 25 and 29 were arrested last Thursday after their plot to snatch the Chinese man was thwarted by police. Police reports show that the three followed the businessman from his supermarket located in Borokhoaneng.
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The man according to police spokesperson Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli was on his way to his residence in Steisheneng when the suspects intercepted his vehicle near Lower Thamae.
“But the man had already alerted police after he saw a suspicious looking car following his. Police arrived just in time to rescue him from his pursuers,” Supt Mopeli told a press briefing yesterday, adding the suspects who tried to escape were arrested with the assistance of members of the public.
Police later discovered that the Bangladeshi business man had lent the suspects his own firearm, a 7.65mm pistol and a choking device to use in the abduction.
Two other soldiers aged 27 and 31 were later arrested in connection with the foiled abduction. One of the two, it later emerged had provided his vehicle for use in the commission of the crime while the second used his sidearm, a 9mm pistol.
Had the plot succeeded, Supt Mopeli said all the suspects stood to share a sum of M8 million.
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