Help for SA 'mercenaries'
2004-07-25 16:39
Johannesburg - A senior South African delegation left for Equatorial Guinea on Sunday to help ensure a fair trial for eight nationals arrested on coup plotting charges, the foreign ministry said.
The eight-member team, which left for the capital city of Malabo, comprises members from the foreign and justice ministries as well as the national prosecuting authority.
Their objective will be to "assist in ensuring a fair and proper trial for the eight South Africans detained on allegations of a coup plot," spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa had said earlier.
The decision to send a delegation from South Africa followed talks in Pretoria between President Thabo Mbeki and Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the long-serving ruler of Equatorial Guinea.
Death sentence
The alleged coup was thwarted in March when 15 suspected mercenaries - including eight South Africans - were arrested in Malabo and another 70 in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, when their plane made a stopover to pick up weapons.
The 70 men held in Zimbabwe maintain the weapons were to be used to guard a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Relatives of the detainees have voiced concern that the men do not stand any chance of a fair trial in Equatorial Guinea and may face a possible death sentence.
Their lawyers have cited reports by the International Bar Association and rights groups such as Amnesty International to argue that the judiciary in Equatorial Guinea is not independent.