State 'can't save Zim 70'

2004-05-26 20:16

Pretoria - Lawyers for the government said on Wednesday the State could not intervene to save 70 alleged coup-plotters detained in Zimbabwe from extradition to Equatorial Guinea where they face a death sentence.

The 70 suspected mercenaries came from South Africa, Namibia and Angola, but were travelling on South African passports.

They have launched an urgent court application to try to force the South African government to have them extradited to South Africa.

The men face possible extradition to Equatorial Guinea where they could be sentenced to death for allegedly planning to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

State advocate Ishmael Simenya told Pretoria High Court South Africa could not ask that the group be sent back home for trial because the men did not meet the requirements of Zimbabwe extradition regulations.

He said the South African government had no legal rights to prevent the extradition of its citizens from one country to another.

Will help with consular services

Simenya also argued that the South African constitution, which forbids the death penalty, could not be enforced in a foreign country.

The South African cabinet met on Wednesday and discussed the fate of the 70 men and 15 other suspected soldiers of fortune held in Equatorial Guinea among other issues.

A statement after the meeting said: "Government wishes to reiterate that, as in all other cases, these individuals should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

"While the government will meet its obligations to South African citizens in both Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea with regard to consular services, it does not have the power or intention to pre-empt court proceedings in these countries."

The Pretoria High Court on Monday heard lawyers for the men asking the government to take all "reasonable and necessary" steps to ensure the men would not be extradited to Equatorial Guinea, and to protect the group from a possible death penalty.

François Joubert, representing the 70 men held in Zimbabwe, told the court South Africa had tipped off the governments of Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea of the suspected mercenary activity.

Denies NIA set a trap for the men

He said then-minister of intelligence Lindiwe Sisulu, presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota all had alluded to the South African government tipping off the Zimbabwean and Equatorial Guinean authorities before the 70 accused took off from South Africa.

But the South African government has denied this in an affidavit before the court.

Simenya said: "The NIA (national intelligence agency) denies that it set a trap for the arrest of the men.

"The NIA has no prior knowledge of attempts to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea."

He later argued that even if the governments had passed on intelligence, it would not have been illegal.

- AFP