'Hired guns' finally in court

2004-03-23 19:55

Harare - Seventy alleged mercenaries accused of plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea finally appeared before a magistrate on Tuesday, 17 days after being arrested, in a special court convened inside Zimbabwe's biggest prison.

British-born Simon Mann, a former director of Executive Outcomes, the mercenary recruiting organisation, and 69 others, all unshaven, wearing khaki tunics and shorts and nearly all of them manacled to each other, sat on benches in a long pre-fabricated building inside Chikurubi Maximum prison just east of Harare, in the first such hearing in the country's history.

The group spoke among each other and joked with defence lawyers before and after the 45-minute hearing. A group of about six relatives were able to speak briefly with some of the men.

Sixty-four of the men and a crew of three aviators were arrested on March 7 shortly after they landed in a Boeing 727 in Harare, while Mann and two South Africans, Jacob Carelse and Lourens Horn, allegedly an advance party sent to buy weapons for the coup attempt, were picked up as they waited for the plane on the tarmac.

They were accused of "conspiring to possess dangerous weapons" to be used in a plot to topple Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of the tiny oil-rich West African state. The charge is under the Public Order and Security Act which, state counsel Mary Dube said, carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

She said they would also face charges of purchasing firearms without a licence. All but the three members of the advance party are also accused of violating immigration and aviation control regulations.

They were not asked to plead to the charges, and magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe ordered them to appear again in the same makeshift court on April 13.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said the group had been "assaulted, booted and some of them actually thrown out of the aircraft" by military police who arrested them on March 7. However, since police took over the case four days later, they had been "professionally" looked after and had no complaints against police.

Dube said "a trap" had been set for Mann and Nick du Toit, his alleged South African co-conspirator who was arrested and still is in detention in Equatorial Guinea. She said the two of them arrived in Harare last month and "entered into an agreement" with Zimbabwe Defence Industries, the state-owned arms manufacturer, to purchase weapons.

"ZDI had carried out background checks and found they were renowned mercenaries," she said.

She said Mann was contracted by exiled Guinean rebel leader Severo Moto in June last year "to assist in toppling" President Mbasogo. Mann had "recruited 69 people with military background."

Samkange said when the group next appeared in the court, he would apply for the magistrate "to refuse to place them on further remand."

- SAPA