'Coup plot mercenaries' cleared of weapons charges

Most of the 70 suspected mercenaries accused of participating in a foiled plot to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea were acquitted today of charges that they conspired to buy weapons from Zimbabwe’s state arms manufacturer.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe said prosecutors failed to prove their case against 64 men arrested when their ageing Boeing 727 landed at Harare International Airport on March 7 and two others already in Zimbabwe at the time.

Prosecutors, who admitted only having circumstantial evidence against the men, had already dropped weapons charges against the plane’s three-man crew.

But all 67 aboard have pleaded guilty to immigration and aviation violations carrying a maximum penalty of two years in jail and a fine.

Prosecutors say Equatorial Guinea’s Spanish-based rebel leader, Severo Moto, offered the group €1.5m and oil rights to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

The suspects maintain they were headed to jobs protecting a mining operation in war-torn eastern Congo.

The alleged leader, former British special forces member Simon Mann, has admitted trying to order assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from the government-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries. But he says they were for use at the Congolese mine.

Mann has pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of taking possession of the weapons.

All 70 accused were remanded in custody until September 10.

Nineteen other suspects, including a number of South Africans, are on trial in Equatorial Guinea.

Another defendant, a German, died shortly after his arrest in March after Amnesty International said he appeared to have been tortured.

Nguema has presided for 25 years over what is widely considered one of the world’s most corrupt and oppressive regimes. Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s third-largest oil producer.

Meanwhile, the government of Equatorial Guinea has asked South Africa to extradite Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who is under house arrest for his alleged role in the coup plot.