A Zimbabwean court on Friday ruled that Briton Simon Mann was guilty of attempting to buy arms for an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea but absolved 66 other suspected mercenaries.
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe said: ”The action by the accused [Mann] amounts at the most to attempting to purchase firearms. The accused is found guilty …”
Guvamombe acquitted 66 other suspected soldiers of fortune detained in Harare’s high security Chikurubi Prison although they still face sentencing on other minor charges.
”The state failed to discharge its onus by proving the accused persons guilty beyond reasonable doubt,” Guvamombe said of the 66 men who were on board a plane that was impounded in Harare in March when it stopped off to pick up weapons.
The judge said he would begin handing down sentences on September 10.
Mann and Nick du Toit, a South African being held as a co-conspirator in Equatorial Guinea, set up Executive Outcomes, which operated from Pretoria in South Africa and helped the Angolan government protect its oil installations from rebels during that country’s long civil war.
Mann’s lawyers argued that he and the other men detained with him were on their way to provide security at diamond mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and not to stage a putsch in Equatorial Guinea.
Prosecutors said Equatorial Guinea’s Spanish-based rebel leader, Severo Moto, offered the group $1,8-million and oil rights to overthrow Nguema. The suspects were accused of ordering assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from the government-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries.
‘Large splodge of wonga’
Mann, educated at one Britain’s top private schools and a former member of the crack SAS troops, was equally at home in London’s best drawing rooms as in less salubrious spots in Africa where his firm provided security.
The son of an English cricket captain, Mann — who holds both British and South African passports — was educated at Eton. He went on for officer training at the prestigious Sandhurst Academy.
He joined the Special Air Service (SAS) and is reported to have served in Cyprus, Germany, Norway, Canada, central America and Northern Ireland before leaving the army in 1981.
Mann, who lived in the posh Cape Town suburb of Constantia — also home to Earl Spencer, the brother of the late Diana, and Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher — allegedly used the ‘old boy’ network to finance his deals, media reports say.
Thatcher, who was arrested in South Africa on Wednesday for allegedly bankrolling the coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, had admitted to his friendship with Mann but denied involvement in the supposed putsch.
Thatcher’s name was dragged in after Mann allegedly smuggled out a letter from jail urging that those supposedly involved in the plot, including ”Scratcher” — a presumed reference to Thatcher — should ”pull their weight, media reports said.
”Our situation is not very good and very URGENT. This is not going well. I must say once again: what will get out is MAJOR CLOUT … We need heavy influence of the sort that … Scratcher” and other people allegedly involved, have.
Mann reportedly said bribes could settle the affair, evoking a call for a ”large splodge of wonga” and adding: ”Now it’s bad times and everyone has to pull their f*****g weight.”
Reports say Mann worked briefly selling advanced computer software before accepting contracts for security work.
He is also featured in a film reconstruction for British television of the Bloody Sunday massacre in northern Ireland in 1972.
Mann is used to the high life. In England, he is reported to own Inchmery, an estate that once belonged to the world-famous Rothschild banking family.
But imprisoned in Harare’s top jail and granted only one basic meal a day, Mann’s circumstances have now changed beyond recognition.
Trial also starts in Equatorial Guinea
The judgement against Mann and his alleged accomplices comes in the same week as the trial of 18 other suspected coup plotters started in Equatorial Guinea.
South African businessman Nick du Toit this week admitted in a Malabo court to giving logistical support to the alleged coup. He said he was hired by Mann.
In Harare, defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said on Thursday that the events taking place in Equatorial Guinea and South Africa would have ”no bearing whatsoever” on his clients’ trial.
”My clients are not facing any charges in relation to coups,” he said.
Zimbabwe, unlike South Africa, does not have laws that cover mercenary activities planned on foreign soil.
The 70 suspects instead had to be charged under local laws covering security, firearms, aviation and immigration offences.
No extradition
The men’s families’ fears that the men would be extradited to Malabo to face coup charges there appeared to be put to rest at the weekend when the government said it would not hand over the men to Equatorial Guinea.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi was quoted in The Herald as saying that Zimbabwe had turned down a request by Equatorial Guinea to have the men extradited to the Central African country.
Mann, who has his own lawyer, pleaded guilty to attempting to possess dangerous weapons in Harare, but denied having purchased more than $180 000-worth of firearms illegally.
Armenians maintain innocence
Meanwhile, six Armenian air crew members accused of helping to plot the coup in Equatorial Guinea told a court in Malabo on Thursday that they had nothing to do with the alleged plot.
Samuel Darbinyan (41), a co-pilot of the aircraft leased by a company belonging to Gerhard Eugen Merz of Germany, said he does not know why he has been held in prison since March along with five other Armenian crew members and eight South Africans.
Merz, who was arrested along with the others, died in detention, officially of cerebral malaria, but with rights groups saying he was tortured to death.
All the Armenian crew members, including captain Ashot Kerapetyan, told the court that they were unaware on what charges they were being held until a few days before hearings began on Monday. — Sapa, Sapa-AP, Sapa-AFP