Mercenary accused in court
2003-07-28 13:20
Cape Town - A South African citizen accused of recruiting mercenaries for the conflict in the Ivory Coast appeared briefly before a Cape Town magistrate on Monday.
The man was arrested at Johannesburg International Airport on Saturday, was not asked to plead and remanded.
He will appear in Pretoria regional court on August 1.
Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said he would be charged with contravening the 1998 Foreign Military Assistance Act, which prohibits South Africans from aiding parties in other conflicts without government approval.
It is understood this will be the first prosecution under the law.
Ngwema said he man, who was born in Lyon, France, but was a naturalised South African, had a house in Hout Bay, Cape Town and local business interests.
However, he had been living in the Ivory Coast for the past two years, and allegedly recruiting South Africans and other nationalities to fight for the Ivorian government.
"We do have that evidence and we will table that in court," Ngwema said. "For now we're still investigating."
The Ivory Coast, a former French colony in West Africa, descended into civil war last September when renegade troops, mainly from the predominantly Muslim north, staged a rebellion.
On July 4, the warring parties formally declared the war over, after three erstwhile rebel groups joined a unity government in line with a French-brokered peace accord.
- SAPA