The trial of 70 suspected mercenaries accused in Zimbabwe of plotting a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea was postponed on Wednesday until the following day to give the defence more time to prepare.
Dressed in khaki prison shirts and shorts, the 70 men shuffled into the makeshift courtroom at Chikurubi maximum security prison outside Harare, wearing leg irons and handcuffs that were later removed as they took their seats on wooden benches.
After hearing the request for the one-day delay from the lawyers, Judge Mishrod Guvamombe told the men: "You come back tomorrow at 9:00 am."
The men were all carrying South African passports when they were arrested at Harare airport during a stop-over from neighbouring South Africa on March 7 to pick up weapons.
The suspected mercenaries say the weapons were to be used to guard diamond mines in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
But authorities say the men, almost all from Angola, DRC, Namibia and South Africa, were on their way to join 15 other suspected mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea to overthrow long-time leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said the postponement would give his team time to review the charges with the men, including alleged leader Simon Mann, a British former SAS officer who in the early 1990s set up outfits that fought in Angola and Sierra Leone.
"It's just a postponement until tomorrow. We are going through the charges. Both the state and the defence have consented to the delay," Samkange said.
The suspected soldiers of fortune are charged with breaching Zimbabwe's firearms, security, immigration and aviation laws.
If convicted, the men face a fine or a five-year jail term, but the real question will be whether President Robert Mugabe will extradite them to Equatorial Guinea where they could be sentenced to death.
During pre-trial hearings, Zimbabwe state prosecutors have argued that Mann
had entered into a contract with Equatorial Guinea's exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, to pave the way for his return from Madrid to Malabo.
The families of the suspected mercenaries say they fear that the men will be extradited to Equatorial Guinea where they could be executed or be sentenced to a long jail term in Malabo's notoriously harsh prisons.
"You don't expect anything. You don't hold your breath. It changes every day," said one of dozens of relatives who had travelled to Harare to attend the trial.
Wednesday's hearing started more than two hours late at the court inside Chikurubi Prison where the men had been held since their arrest.
The court proceedings took place amid tight security in a building inside the prison compound surrounded by high concrete walls and razor wire.
The trial was originally scheduled to start on Monday, but was last week delayed by two days to allow family members to appeal to South Africa's highest court to have the men extradited back home to face trial. The families are still awaiting judgement in that case.
Prison officials handed out letters written to some of the wives from their detained spouses as they waited outside the prison with shopping bags full of groceries for the men.
Comments
Comments are closed.