UK Led Mercenaries Ordered £100,000 Weapons - Court Told (Equat. Guinea)

[UpInArms]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2686730

Suspected mercenaries, led by a Briton, who are accused of planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea, were remanded in custody today when they finally appeared an improvised court in the Zimbabwean maximum security jail where they are being held.

Dressed in green prison shorts and shirts, the 70 men sat grimly on wooden benches set up in a function room behind 30 foot high walls and razor wire at Chikurubi prison. Most were manacled and shackled.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe presided from behind a wooden table at the front of the room.

The suspects – who include a Briton, South Africans, Namibians, Angolans, Congolese and a Zimbabwean – were arrested when their ageing Boeing 727 landed at Harare International Airport on March 7.

Most are former members of South Africa’s apartheid-era military forces.

...more...

[AP]

1. surprised this didn't get attention: most serious charges dropped!!!

They were also accused of violating Zimbabwe’s immigration, firearms and security legislation. If convicted, they could face life in prison.

Allegations they conspired to murder Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma and his bodyguards were dropped at the last minute, along with subversion and terrorism charges.

So it looks like they haven't been charged with anytyhing that will result in execution.

I wonder what sort of back-room negotiations resulted in that!

[DulceDecorum]

2. Lawyer Samkange says:

Friday, 12 March, 2004
A lawyer representing the group has met his clients and said they have not complained about their treatment.
"They have not been ill-treated, they are happy and were even saying they are being given too much food in jail," Jonathan Samkange was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3504896.stm

Yesterday, Samkange, accompanied by the South African lawyers, visited the alleged coup plotters at Chikurubi Maximum Prison where they are detained. To gain access to his clients Samkange said he was escorted by police into the prison premises that are heavily guarded. "They have not been ill-treated, they are happy and were even saying they are being given too much food in jail," he said. "They are also saying they were not on a mission of war but to carry out mining activities," he said.
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8843

Apparently, Zimbabwe, does not have much legislation concerning mercernary activity.
The United States does.

Private military companies have to be registered with the U.S. government and must apply for a license with the U.S State Department in order to export their services abroad, under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) Law. However, as the ICIJ report points out, PMCs can sell their services abroad through the Defense Department's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, under which the Pentagon pays the contractor for services offered to a foreign government. Companies often use FMS in order to avoid the lengthy ITAR licensing process.
http://www.corp-research.org/dec02.htm

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