Em Gessen

The nanny was reluctant to speak.

One morning, Priscilla said she took Elle, who was 15 months old, to nursery school when the police snatched Priscilla off the street and took her to a maximum security women's prison notorious for having inhumane conditions.

Priscilla immediately suspected that this was a ploy directed by Alan to somehow get Elle.

Yes, to the prison.

Priscilla needed to be able to keep her eyes on Elle.

And as it turned out, because Elle was younger than two, Priscilla could ask to be incarcerated with her.

In a prison with concrete floors and no running water.

Priscilla also testified to this later, at Alan's trial, that he was behind the whole thing.

According to Zimbabwean court documents, Priscilla's arrest was officially related to the property dispute.

During her time in jail, her businesses were evicted for good.

After two weeks, Priscilla and Elle were released.

Alan denies that he orchestrated anything.

He did file for custody of Elle, yes, as soon as Priscilla was arrested.

But he says it was just out of concern for Elle and her well-being.

Priscilla had been back in Zimbabwe for only four months, and she had already been beaten up, evicted, forced out of business, arrested, and arrested again.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, that's after the break.

It was 2020, and Alan had filed for full custody of O. The case was stalled because of COVID.

Priscilla's American lawyer had filed her case under the Hague Convention, but this too was on hold now.

They both waited, Priscilla and Zabave, temporarily relieved from her nightmare sequence of struggles, and Alan in Massachusetts, perhaps frustrated by being unable to pursue his custody claims.

In the meantime, he was working on some sort of scheme to bring a shipload of PPE to the United States.