'Mercenaries' claim beatings
2004-04-08 13:15
Harare - Zimbabwe will investigate allegations by some of the 70 suspected mercenaries detained for allegedly plotting a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea that they were beaten in a Harare prison, a state-run daily said on Thursday.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying that the prison guards who allegedly beat the 18 prisoners and doused them with water could face disciplinary measures.
The ministry would "investigate the circumstances of the alleged assaults with a view to bringing disciplinary charges, if warranted, against the prison officers identified by the mercenaries to have allegedly carried out the assaults," Chinamasa was quoted as saying.
A group of 67 suspected mercenaries were arrested on March 7 on a plane at Harare International Airport, and another three men were detained when they came to meet them at the airport. All 70 were allegedly on their way to Equatorial Guinea to topple President Obiang Nguema.
They have been linked to 15 supposed putchists jailed in the tiny oil-rich country on Africa's western coast, of whom one has died of cerebral malaria, according to authorities in Malabo.
The 70 men being held at a maximum security prison in Harare, mostly from Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, claim they were hired in South Africa to be security guards at a diamond mine in Democratic Republic of Congo.
They face several charges, including possession of dangerous weapons and breaching Zimbabwe's firearms and immigration laws. State lawyers say they could be jailed for life if found guilty.