Twenty innocent men charged with planning a coup against the president of Congo: evidence was fabricated. SJ Dodgson. MJoTA v7n1 p0517

On Feb 5^th, 3013, 19 men were rounded up for a routine job that was supposed to permit them to go home that night to have dinner with their families, but because of a series of absurd events, instead found themselves locked up in Pretoria Central Prison where they remain as I write this, on May 17, 2013.

The men found themselves forced to put on military uniforms and were driven to an area one of their captors described as a killing field, tied to trees, and instead of being shot, were handed over to South African police with fabricated evidence that they had been spending over a year training in military camps in order to overthrow the government of the President Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo. What else could the South African police do but charge them with breaking the laws of South Africa? The South African police were overly enthusiastic: I have been told the men were tortured into admitting their guilt. I have no independent evidence of this; but if indeed evidence is given at trial that each man signed a confession, I can say categorically that every one of them has declared his innocence to family members and friends who have spoken with them.

I was told by a relative of one of the men charged that the men believed they were not shot dead because their captors had the absurd idea that this group of family men included Etienne Kabila.

In the next days, Etienne Kabila turned himself in to the police in Capetown, 2000km (over 1100 miles) from Johannesburg. The police had broadcasted widely that they needed to speak to him.

Etienne Kabila claims to be the true son of the previous President Kabila of DRC; and he certainly resembles him physically. He further claims that the current President Kabila is no blood relative; and is in fact a pretender fraudulently elected by ballots that were not counted or not existent. President Kabila does not resemble the previous President Kabila. Etienne Kabila has been locked up with the other 19 in Pretoria Central Prison since his arrest.

The arrested men mostly work in construction, mostly have lived in South Africa several decades, own property in South Africa. Nearly all have children who would like to be South African citizens and during their entire lives, have never lived anywhere else. They love South Africa and expect the South African judicial system to do what it excels at: throw out this case for lack of evidence and because of overwhelming evidence that every one of these men came home to their wives every night for dinner for at least a year or decade before the arrest.

In the middle was US citizen James Kazongo, who was caught in this net during what he believed was a short visit to South Africa and Swaziland.

From what I have learned in my short time in Johannesburg and from spending time with his wife and children in and around Philadelphia, James had nothing to do with a plot to overthrow the government of President Kabila because there was no plot.

James spent his last year in the house in Middletown, Delaware cutting the grass, taking his kids swimming, teaching them how to play drums and guitar, and working as a cook. His sons Mike and Matt and Max told me he makes the best chips in the world. Which is what he was doing. Hanging out with his wife and sons. Building on the life he had started in America 3 decades ago.

James Kazongo had too much to lose to do anything so stupid; and did not have the time to do it either. Ten days in South Africa before arrest was hardly enough to overcome jet lag.

South Africa has been through a lot; its constitution was forged with blood and fire. I look forward to James returning to his children to make the best chips in the world this year, and next year, and for many years to come. Max is only 4.