The 62 South African alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe will be transported to South Africa in Zimbabwean government vehicles, their lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said on Thursday.
”We offered to supply a bus to bring them back, but it has been turned down because they [government officials] say they are a security risk. They are in a meeting now discussing this,” he told the South African Press Agency from Harare.
The men were still in prison late on Thursday morning. They were expected to have been released on Tuesday from the Chikurubi maximum security prison outside Harare when their sentences expired. They have served 12 months for violating Zimbabwe’s immigration, aviation, firearms and security laws.
Earlier the wife of one of the men said she was not surprised her husband was still in prison.
”I don’t even know why I get shocked sometimes. But it is really not surprising,” said Marge Pain, wife of Kenneth Pain.
”This waiting is so soul destroying.”
She told Sapa in Musina near the Beit Bridge border post: ”I don’t know what is going on. I don’t know what they, [Zimbabwean officials] are trying to prove.”
After the men were not released on Tuesday, they were supposed to have been freed early on Thursday and deported by road to Beit Bridge.
Meanwhile, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the men would not be arrested on their return, but they may be prosecuted.
NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said the Scorpions were investigating whether the men had contravened the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act. If so, they will face prosecution.
”We will speak to them when appropriate … They’ve been in jail for a year and want to see their families. Their families want to see them,” Nkosi said on Thursday.
”We have contact with their lawyer and know where to find them. So why would we want to arrest them?”
South African Ambassador Jerry Ndou said the men will leave Harare after the completion of all their immigration documents. Zimbabwe’s chief immigration officer is said to be personally handling the men’s deportation.
Their early release in March after a reduction of their sentences was thwarted by an appeal by Zimbabwean Attorney General Sobuza Gula-Ndebele.
He argued that early releases only applied to Zimbabweans. Leave for the appeal was granted, and a date for the matter to be heard was set for later in May.
The sentences of the 62 men expired before this could happen.
Two of the men due for release on Thursday — Francisco Marcus and Melane Moyodue — are ill with tuberculosis believed to have been picked up in prison.
Accusations of mistreatment of the prisoners have surfaced, with Griebenow saying their living conditions were ”horrible”.
Their prison food had little nutritional value, they slept on the floor, and sometimes weeks went by without running water, he said.
The group was arrested at Harare International airport when they apparently landed to refuel and pick up military equipment.
Zimbabwean authorities maintained they were on their way to join 15 other alleged mercenaries — including eight South Africans — arrested in Equatorial Guinea around the same time.
The men said the equipment found in their possession was to be used to guard mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The group in Equatorial Guinea were convicted and given long prison sentences for attempting to overthrow the country’s long-time dictator, Teodoro Obiang Nguema. – Sapa