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'Hired guns' still to appear
15/03/2004 20:43 - (SA)
Harare - Sixty-four suspected mercenaries along with their three-man flight crew were making sworn statements to police on Monday ahead of a court appearance on immigration and firearms charges, their lawyers said.
The suspects, accused of planning a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, have been completing written formalities at Chikurubi maximum security prison since the weekend, attorney Chris Venturas said.
Ten of them completed their statements on Sunday, a requirement before they can be formally charged. No date has been set for their first court appearance.
The group, which comes from a number of African countries, was arrested March 7 when its aging Boeing 727 stopped at Harare International Airport.
Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge has said the men could face the death penalty. But none of the possible charges mentioned so far are capital offences.
Judicial authorities have said relatively minor charges under firearms and immigration laws are being prepared. The three crew members are accused of making a false declaration about the number of people aboard the plane and its destination.
The state-run Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, reported on Monday the group could also be charged under a little known law banning activities of "foreign subversive organisations" in Zimbabwe.
A conviction would carry a penalty of up to five years in jail, or a more severe punishment as decreed by President Robert Mugabe on the advice of law officers, the newspaper said.
The government has also said it is investigating whether it has jurisdiction to prosecute the suspects for conspiring to destabilise a sovereign government other than Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe investigators allege that Equatorial Guinea's rebel leader, Severo Moto, offered the suspects $1.8m and oil rights for helping to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma.
Fifteen other suspected mercenaries were arrested in Equatorial Guinea last week, also on suspicion of plotting a coup.
Zimbabwe says the alleged mercenaries were also planning to supply guns and other assistance to rebels in eastern Congo.
They claim they were headed to eastern Congo to work at mining operations, according to their lawyers.
The suspects includes 20 South Africans, 18 Namibians, 23 Angolans, two Congolese and a Zimbabwean travelling on a South African passport.
- AP
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