OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 4.05pm.
Three self-described missionaries for the Indianapolis-based Harvestfield Ministries professed their innocence in the Harare High Court on Wednesday.
The three Americans, arrested on weapons charges at Harare’s airport on March 7, told the court they were shipping guns home to the United States after closing their church mission in war-torn Congo.
John Lamonte Dixon, Gary George Blanchard and Joseph Wendell PettiJohn, in a joint affidavit submitted to the court, said they were used to “very liberal firearms legislation” in the United States.
The Americans were apprehended at Harare’s airport after a gun activated a metal detector as they boarded a flight to Switzerland at Harare’s airport.
Zimbabwe police allege an array of weapons, including pump-action shotguns, hunting rifles, automatic rifles, a light machine gun, telescopic sights, handguns and silencers were found in their luggage and in a truck parked at the airport.
The men admit possessing weapons they say they fired for fun, and say were used for self-defence and hunting in southern Congo.
Lawyers acting for the Americans said during their trial scheduled to begin next Monday they will dispute the list of gun types police claim to have seized.
The minimum penalty for illegal possession of weapons categorized as “arms of war” under Zimbabwe law is eight years in jail, and the maximum is life imprisonment.