A high court in Zimbabwe will on Monday hear an urgent application brought by lawyers representing 70 men detained in Harare on charges of plotting to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea for their case to be heard in an open court.
Lawyer Jonathan Samkange on Sunday said he wanted his clients to appear at a public court in Harare, but state lawyers want the men tried in prison because of concerns over public security.
”We want transparency. We want the case to be heard in open court,” Samkange said.
”I sought an urgent application on Friday,” he said, adding that the Harare High Court was ”definitely” due to hear the application on Monday.
”They (the state lawyers) can’t do anything until the judge makes a decision,” he said. ”They tell me they will abide by the court’s decision.”
The 70 men were arrested two weeks ago at Harare International Airport. Sixty-seven of them were aboard a Boeing 727 that landed at the airport, while three others were arrested when they went to meet the plane.
The men, who are being held under the country’s immigration laws that allow suspects to be held two weeks before being brought to court, are being kept at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare.
”By tomorrow (Monday) Chikurubi will be holding them illegally,” Samkange said.
The suspected mercenaries face several charges under Zimbabwean law, including conspiring to murder President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, breaching firearms, security and immigration laws, and conspiring to commit international terrorism.
Zimbabwe government ministers have said the men landed in Zimbabwe on March 7 to pick up weapons for a coup d’etat in Equatorial Guinea. They say they may face the death penalty.
The suspects deny the charges. Those aboard the plane say they were hired in South Africa to be security guards on a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The trio who went to meet them, who include former British soldier Simon Mann, say they had a signed agreement with the state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) to purchase weapons including AK 47s, rocket launchers, hand grenades and ammunition. – Sapa-AFP