The state has not reached the ”required threshold” to prove its case against eight men accused of contravening sections of the Regulation on Foreign Military Assistance Act, the Pretoria Regional Court heard on Thursday.
State Advocate Torie Pretorius SC closed his case against Raymond Stanley Archer, Victor Dracula, Louis du Preez, Errol Harris, Mazanga Kashama, Neves Tomas Matias, Simon Morris Witherspoon and Hendrik Jacobus Hamman — who are accused of taking part in an alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
Defence advocate Margie Victor, appearing for six of the men, then asked the court to discharge her clients arguing that the state had not fully proven its case.
She argued that the evidence by the state’s own witnesses proved that most of the men thought they were on their way to do security work at a mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Attorney Alwyn Griebenow, for Du Preez and Witherspoon, also asked that his clients be discharged, arguing that while they might have known of the coup plot, they thought they had the approval of the South African government for it.
Just before the state closed its case on Thursday, the director general of the South African secret service, Hilton Dennis, testified that the government had not given approval for the plot.
”It’s actually quite insulting because our mandate is to prevent this kind of thing taking place,” he said.
He, however, admitted that the secret service knew about the plot in the month leading up to the attempt.
”There are many ways to kill a cat. We chose this route and succeeded in preventing the coup,” Dennis told the court when he was asked why they did not stop the men flying from South Africa before they were arrested in Zimbabwe.
The eight accused were among a group of men arrested in March 2004 when they landed at Harare International Airport to refuel and pick up military equipment, allegedly on their way to Equatorial Guinea.
Sixty-one of the group returned to South Africa in 2005 after spending more than a year in a Zimbabwean prison for violating immigration, aviation, firearms and security laws.
The court will hear arguments on Friday from Pretorius on why the eight should not be discharged. — Sapa