One of the men accused of planning a thwarted coup in Equatorial Guinea turned state witness on Monday in a trial seen as a test of South Africa’s hardened stance on mercenary activity.
Charges were dropped in the Pretoria Regional Court against Maitre Ruakuluka of South Africa.
Eight other African men will stand trial in connection with two foiled attempts in 2004 to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who seized power in the tiny oil-producing West African nation in a 1979 coup.
The first witnesses are expected to appear in court on Tuesday after the trial was adjourned on Monday morning so that the prosecution and defence teams could sort out final details and pare down the witness list that now counts about 120 people.
The accused in the alleged coup plot are thought to have met at various times from January 2003 to March 2004 at a hotel, fast food restaurant, holiday resort, airports and other places in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and towns in South Africa.
They also supposedly met at destinations outside the country, including the Canary Islands, for training and to hammer out a coup plan.
The men on trial in Pretoria were among a group of 61 deported to South Africa from Zimbabwe in May 2005 after serving 12-month jail terms there on immigration and weapons charges.
Last year South Africa passed an anti-mercenary law in a bid to curb civilian-soldiers from offering security services and fighting in armed combat or organising to topple African leaders.
The Bill is awaiting the signature of South African President Thabo Mbeki to come into force.
If implemented, it will oblige citizens employed as security personnel to be granted state permission and declare some war-torn spots as regulated zones.
Rights groups criticise the Bill as taking away the freedom of employment. Thousands working as security personnel in conflict zones could be affected by the new legislation, including about 2 000 South Africans in Iraq — many of whom are believed to be former apartheid-era soldiers.
However, those linked to the alleged mission to overtake the government of Equatorial Guinea are charged with violating a different South African law enacted in 1997 that regulates private military and security companies.
The eight co-accused include South Africans Raymond Stanley Archer, Victor Dracula, Louis Du Preez, Errol Harris, Neves Tomas Matias, Simon Morris and Hendrick Jacobus; Mazanga Kashama of the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Namibia’s Hendrick Jacobus Hamman.
Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, pleaded guilty in a South African court to his involvement in financing part of the scheme and ducked jail under a plea bargain with prosecutors. — Reuters