Zimbabwe police have arrested a second suspect in connection with the murder of Australian accountant Philip Laing, a police spokesperson said on Sunday.
Oliver Mandipaka said that the second member of a four-member gang of armed robbers — who attacked and robbed the Eastern Highlands Tea Estate — was arrested in Harare a few days after a first suspect was picked up in late December.
”The police have the identity of the other two,” said Mandipaka.
Laing and several other members of the accounts department on the tea estate were abducted on December 19 and forced to drink acid after the robbers emptied office safes of workers’ wages. The 51-year-old Laing died after swallowing acid, while his co-workers were seriously injured.
The incident came amid strained relations between Australia and Zimbabwe after Prime Minister John Howard led the push to continue Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Commonwealth last month.
A family member of Laing, who is from Perth, told Australian media in December that the crime appeared to have been politically motivated, but Zimbabwe police dismissed the theory.
”One thing we know for sure is that the case was not politically motivated. It was purely criminal,” Mandipaka said on Sunday. He said one of the suspects arrested had two prior robbery convictions. – Sapa-AFP