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afrol.com / AENS, 26 March - Malawi police pre-empted a suspected coup at the weekend by arresting a prominent Malawi businessman and five soldiers, authorities confirmed on Monday. Malawi police deputy inspector general Joseph Aironi said special police units arrested outspoken businessman Sudi Sulaimana and five unnamed soldiers in southern Malawi on Friday evening. The six alleged conspirators are being interrogated at the Chichiri maximum security prison in Malawi's commercial capital of Blantyre but have not yet been formally charged. - We acted on information that the group was plotting to overthrow the democratically elected government, but are still attempting to verify whether the allegations are true, said Aironi. Investigating officers indicate that the alleged plotters planned to seize Malawi's Broadcasting Corporation's (MBC) radio studios and the government run Television Malawi before attacking President Bakili Muluzi's Sanjika Palace in Blantyre. No dates were given for the suspected coup, but President Muluzi was only scheduled to visit Blantyre from the capital Lilongwe next week. Aironi confirmed that southern Malawi police commissioner Milward Chikwamba had been appointed chief investigators but was unable to indicate whether the detained soldiers were senior or retired officers. "We don't have much information at this stage," was all he was prepared to say. The arrest is Sulaimana's second on conspiracy charges. He was previously detained on attempted coup charges by former Life President Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda in the early 1990s. Sulaimana was, however, pardoned and released by President Muluzi's administration immediately after it was elected to power in Malawi's first multi-party democratic elections in 1994. The alleged coup plot this weekend is meanwhile the second against Muluzi over the past six-years. Influential army officer Lieutenant Colonel Njoloma was arrested for allegedly planning a violent rebellion in 1997 after he absconded from his barracks without authorisation. A nationwide manhunt by the police and army failed to flush Njoloma and a small band of rebel soldiers. The popular officer was only arrested when he finally handed himself in back at his home barracks, where he was promptly court marshalled on mutiny charges and imprisoned. He died in prison in 1999. Sulaimana and his co-accused face the death sentence if they are found guilty on treason or mutiny charges. President Muluzi is however opposed to capital punishment and has yet to sign execution orders for any prisoners on death row. By Brian Ligomeka,
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