A court in Zambia released five Egyptians and one Zambian citizen today, Friday, after prosecutors dropped espionage charges against them three weeks after they arrived on a private plane carrying weapons, ammunition, counterfeit money, and fake gold. The Zambian Drug Enforcement Agency stated that two of the Egyptians would be re-arrested due to lesser charges that were not specified, but would be released on bail. A judge mentioned that five other Zambian citizens had not been released and would be tried in the High Court for entering a restricted area of the airport.
A court in the capital, Lusaka, filed charges against the eleven men last Monday in a case that attracted public interest in both Egypt and Zambia. The Zambian Drug Enforcement Agency found approximately $5.7 million in cash, five pistols, 126 rounds of ammunition, and 602 gold bars suspected of being fake, weighing about 127 kilograms, on board the plane during a search operation on August 13. Zambia later stated that laboratory analysis showed the metal bars contained no gold but were mainly composed of copper and zinc, leading to media speculation that some suspects may have sought to deceive gold buyers in a fraud scheme involving the sale of counterfeit bars.
Zambia's Chief Prosecutor, Graciela Mulenga, informed the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions had dropped the charges. The prosecutor did not provide reasons for dropping the charges. One of the released Egyptians apologized to journalists outside the court, stating that it was not the right time to talk and asserting that they had known from day one that they were innocent. The initial indictment did not mention the plane or the seized items, but the defendants' lawyers had previously stated that the detainees were on the plane.
