Congolese opposition leader and presidential hopeful Moise Katumbi has said he will return from Europe to contest in the presidential vote later this year, dismissing an arrest warrant issued against him as “fake”.
Katumbi said he has recovered from what his supporters have alleged was a police attempt to poison him in May, an accusation the government denies.
“I’m going to come back even if they have their fake police warrant … I am a candidate in 2016,” Reuters reports the multi-millionaire to say.
Congolese authorities issued a warrant of arrest against Katumbi in May on charges of hiring foreign mercenaries in a plot against the republic.
The prosecutor general let him leave the country a day later to receive medical treatment for an unspecified illness, as long as he returned once his health improved.
The 51-year-old was later convicted in absentia in a separate case on charges of selling a building that he did not own, and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Katumbi has denied all the charges.
