The trial of 70 suspected mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe for allegedly plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, has been postponed to allow for a South African court to hear an appeal for their expatriation to Pretoria, a lawyer said on Saturday.
The trial had been due to open at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on July 19, but will now start on July 21, said South African Lawyer Alwyn Griebenow.
”The date has been shifted… so we will go on trial on 21 July,” Griebenow said.
He said the delay was so that he could lodge an appeal on behalf of the men — who were all travelling on South African passports — in South Africa’s Constitutional Court for them to be extradited to face trial there.
The 70 were arrested on March 7 at Harare International Airport when their Boeing 727 landed in Harare to pick up weapons from Zimbabwe’s state-run arms manufacturer.
The authorities in Zimbabwe claim they were on their way to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s government in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, charges the men deny. They say they were on their way to guard diamond mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The men have been charged with breaching Zimbabwe’s security, firearms, aviation and immigration laws. If convicted lawyers say the men could face a fine or a five-year prison term.
Defence lawyers are keen to have the men stand trial in South Africa, as they say they face the possibility of extradition to Equatorial Guinea from Zimbabwe, as well as an unfair trial there and possible death sentence.
Griebenow said that state lawyers in Zimbabwe had agreed to the slight postponement of the long-awaited trial.
The men come from South Africa, Angola and Namibia but were all travelling on South African passports. – Sapa-AFP