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Court allows Zimbabwe government to contest mercenaries' early release
Agence France Presse -- English
March 23, 2005 Wednesday
HARARE March 23 -- Zimbabwe's supreme court Wednesday allowed its
government to contest a decision by a lower court for the early
release of 62 suspected mercenaries jailed over a coup plot in oil-rich
Equatorial Guinea.
"Chief Justice (Godfrey) Chidyausiku has granted the prosecution
leave to appeal," the men's lawyer Julia Woods told AFP.
"This means the state will now be able to appeal."
The Harare high court three weeks ago slashed the alleged coup
plotters' one-year sentences to eight months, which they are serving
in a top security jail outside Harare.
Lawyers said the men were to be released after the high court ruling
but the state then objected, saying foreigners were not entitled to
suspended sentences.
"You can't suspend a portion of a sentence imposed on a foreigner
because it serves no purpose, you are not able to monitor that they
will comply with the order of good behaviour," said director of
prosecutions Joseph Musakwa.
Convicted persons are eligible to a remission of a third of their
sentences in Zimbabwe on condition they do not commit a similar
offence within a specified period.
The group had been preparing to leave Chikurubi prison -- where they
have been held following their arrest in early March last year --
for deportation to Pretoria.
The 62 are part of a group of 70 men arrested on March 7 at Harare
International airport when their plane stopped over to collect weapons
which they maintain were to be used in guarding mines in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
But Zimbabwean and South African authorities believed the men were
on their way to Equatorial Guinea to topple long-time leader Teodoro
Obiang Nguema.
Their leader, Briton Simon Mann, is serving a four-year sentence
after his seven-year jail term was later reduced, while two pilots
who flew the plane to Harare to collect arms got 16 months on various
convictions for violation of immigration and firearm laws.
Although they were all travelling on South African passports when
they were arrested, they are believed to have been from different
countries including Angola, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
British businessman Mark Thatcher, who was accused of partly financing
the alleged plot, was recently convicted by a South African court
for violating its anti-mercenary laws and paid a three-million-rand
(380,000 euros/505,000 dollars) fine.
In November a court in Equatorial Guinea gave stiff jail sentences
to five alleged South African and six Armenian mercenaries, including
34 years for South African Nick du Toit.
Agence France Presse -- English
March 23, 2005 Wednesday
HARARE March 23 -- Zimbabwe's supreme court Wednesday allowed its
government to contest a decision by a lower court for the early
release of 62 suspected mercenaries jailed over a coup plot in oil-rich
Equatorial Guinea.
"Chief Justice (Godfrey) Chidyausiku has granted the prosecution
leave to appeal," the men's lawyer Julia Woods told AFP.
"This means the state will now be able to appeal."
The Harare high court three weeks ago slashed the alleged coup
plotters' one-year sentences to eight months, which they are serving
in a top security jail outside Harare.
Lawyers said the men were to be released after the high court ruling
but the state then objected, saying foreigners were not entitled to
suspended sentences.
"You can't suspend a portion of a sentence imposed on a foreigner
because it serves no purpose, you are not able to monitor that they
will comply with the order of good behaviour," said director of
prosecutions Joseph Musakwa.
Convicted persons are eligible to a remission of a third of their
sentences in Zimbabwe on condition they do not commit a similar
offence within a specified period.
The group had been preparing to leave Chikurubi prison -- where they
have been held following their arrest in early March last year --
for deportation to Pretoria.
The 62 are part of a group of 70 men arrested on March 7 at Harare
International airport when their plane stopped over to collect weapons
which they maintain were to be used in guarding mines in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
But Zimbabwean and South African authorities believed the men were
on their way to Equatorial Guinea to topple long-time leader Teodoro
Obiang Nguema.
Their leader, Briton Simon Mann, is serving a four-year sentence
after his seven-year jail term was later reduced, while two pilots
who flew the plane to Harare to collect arms got 16 months on various
convictions for violation of immigration and firearm laws.
Although they were all travelling on South African passports when
they were arrested, they are believed to have been from different
countries including Angola, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
British businessman Mark Thatcher, who was accused of partly financing
the alleged plot, was recently convicted by a South African court
for violating its anti-mercenary laws and paid a three-million-rand
(380,000 euros/505,000 dollars) fine.
In November a court in Equatorial Guinea gave stiff jail sentences
to five alleged South African and six Armenian mercenaries, including
34 years for South African Nick du Toit.