A magistrate rejected a defence motion on Wednesday to free 70 alleged mercenaries accused of plotting a coup to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea.
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe said there was reasonable suspicion against the men, most of them from other African nations, who have been held here since March when their aging Boeing 727 was impounded at Harare International Airport after flying here from South Africa.
Guvamombe ordered the suspects to appear before him again on May 26.
Zimbabwe prosecutors allege Equatorial Guinea’s Spanish-based rebel leader Severo Moto offered the group $1,8-million and oil rights to overthrow the government of President Theodoro Obiang Nguema in the former Spanish colony in West Africa.
Another 14 suspected mercenaries are in custody in Equatorial Guinea. The suspects in Zimbabwe are being held on weapons and immigration charges at the Chikurubi maximum security prison outside Harare. They cannot be charged with coup-plotting here under Zimbabwean law.
The suspects have denied coup plotting, saying they were headed to security jobs at mining operations in eastern Congo.
Defence attorney Jonathan Samkange said he was worried of a possible attempt to send the men to Equatorial Guinea, where the charge of coup plotting carries a possible death sentence.
Prosecutor Lawrence Phiri told the court that he had evidence that Simon Mann, the alleged leader of the plot and a former British soldier, had signed a contract with Moto, the Equatorial Guinea opposition leader. He gave no further details.
Most of the group held in Zimbabwe — who include South Africans, Namibians, Angolans, Congolese, a Zimbabwean and a British national — are former members of South Africa’s apartheid-era military forces.
Samkange, in arguing for a defence motion to free the 70, said they had committed no immigration or weapons offence when they were seized in March and therefore had no case to answer.
South Africa’s Bar Council, representing the country’s leading lawyers, on Wednesday protested the treatment of the 70 in Zimbabwean prisons, saying they had been kept in shackles 24 hours a day, denied proper food and clothing, and access to lawyers.
It said they appeared to have been judged and convicted on the coup allegations in advance, and appealed to South African President Thabo Mbeki’s government not to ”abandon them to their fate” but seek their return to South Africa to stand trial under 1998 laws against recruitment of mercenaries.
Samkange said although it was not produced in court, he had seen a document signed by Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge agreeing to send the men to Equatorial Guinea. – Sapa-AP