'Mercenary' Mann pleads guilty
2004-07-28 16:03
Harare - The leader of 70 suspected mercenaries on trial in Zimbabwe for allegedly plotting a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea pleaded guilty on Wednesday to violating security laws.
But Briton Simon Mann, a former Special Air Service (SAS) officer, entered a "not guilty" plea to violating firearms legislation on the second day of the trial held in a makeshift courtroom in the maximum-security Chikurubi prison.
Mann and 69 other men were arrested on March 7 when their plane stopped over in Zimbabwe to pick up weapons from the state arms manufacturer that they claim were to be used to guard a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zimbabwean authorities say the men were on their way to Equatorial Guinea to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
State prosecutors on Wednesday called Hope Mutize, the marketing manager at Zimbabwe's state arms manufacturer, who testified that Mann and South African Nick du Toit - who has been arrested along with 14 others in Malabo - had approached him in February to buy $180 800 worth of weapons.
"Mr Mann said he wanted to buy some weapons. According to him, he wanted to use the weapons to guard mines in the DR Congo," Mutize testified, adding that the men had put down a deposit for the weapons.
The prosecutors called Mutize to the stand to prove that Mann had purchased weapons in violation of Zimbabwe's firearms laws.
A conviction on charges of breaching Zimbabwe's firearms and security laws could lead to a 10-year jail term.
The 70 were all carrying South African passports at the time of their arrest but their countries of origin include Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.