Zim 70 'won't be extradited'
2004-08-08 22:25
Johannesburg - The eight suspected South African mercenaries who are being held in Equatorial Guinea on coup charges, probably won't face a death sentence.
This is according to an interview French publication Jeune Afrique Intelligent (JIA) had with EG President Obiang Nguema.
Ngeuma told the publication that to be sentenced to death in EG a capital punishment crime must have been committed in the country.
Therefore it is unlikely that the eight South Africans will be sentenced to death, because at this stage it only seems as if they had the intention to stage a coup.
He also confirmed that his government received a warning of the men's plans.
"Of course we would have resisted it. Even if someone had attempted a coup, they wouldn't have been successful. We were waiting for them," he said.
According to Nguema there would also be no extradition of the 70 men arrested in Zimbabwe on similar charges.
No deal
Earlier reports said that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe clinched a deal with Nguema to extradite the men in return for oil worth millions of dollars.
Nguema said that these rumours are "totally false" and that his country doesn't have space in its maximum-security prisons for 70 extra men.
He said he and Mugabe had decided to each look after their "own" suspected mercenaries, despite the fact that both groups are being accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
"I will not ask for their extradition," Nguema said.
According to Nguema the court case of the eight men would already have begun, but they decided that South African observers and lawyers should be present to "prevent that the legal aspects could be questioned".
It is expected that the case will start on August 23 and that it would take five days before sentencing.
Mastermind
Nguema also confirmed that he is in possession of copies of contracts and plans which will prove that Simon Mann, one of the arrested men in Zimbabwe, is one of the master minds of the coup attempt.
The EG president said that Mann, together with Elie Khalil, a rich Lebanese oil baron living in the UK and Severo Moto, exiled EG leader in Spain, was "in charge" of the "mercenaries".
"Certain elements indicate that Mark Thatcher, son of ex-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and a former member of her cabinet, which I won't identify, also could have been involved with the financial planning of the alleged coup," Nguema said.