'Plotters' say they targeted Taylor - Mercenaries

[seemslikeadream]

FRED BRIDGLAND IN JOHANNESBURG


A BAND of suspected mercenaries accused in Zimbabwe of planning a coup to topple the leader of Equatorial Guinea are to claim their mission was to bring the exiled Liberian president, Charles Taylor, to justice.

Zimbabwe has charged 70 men, led by a former British SAS officer, Simon Mann, with conspiracy to overthrow the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. All have been held in Harare since their plane was impounded there on 7 March.

A further 15 men have been detained in Equatorial Guinea in connection with the alleged plot.

But a South African newspaper yesterday said the plan, which it claimed was put together by a British military company, Northbridge Services Group, was to capture Taylor and bring him from his exile in Nigeria....

more

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=344232004

[seemslikeadream]

1. Mercenaries: 'Bounty hunters'

The men arrested in Zimbabwe are being held at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare. (AP)

Johannesburg - Eighty-five alleged mercenaries facing charges of trying to topple the president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea were actually on a mission to abduct former Liberian president Charles Taylor from Nigeria, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

This Day, quoting sources close to some of the South African nationals among the 70 presumed soldiers of fortune detained in Zimbabwe, said their objective was not to topple Equatorial Guinea's long-serving President Teodoro Obiang Nguema but to deliver Taylor to a special war crimes court in Sierra Leone.

Fifteen other presumed mercenaries have been detained in Equatorial Guinea on charges of trying to oust Nguema. One of the men has since died of cerebral malaria.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1502618,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

2. Charles Taylor may have been 'mercenaries' target

author/source:Times (UK)
published:Wed 24-Mar-2004
posted on this site:Thu 25-Mar-2004

Sea-borne assault on Nigerian port

From Michael Dynes in Johannesburg

A saga of claim and counterclaim surrounding suspected African mercenaries continued today when the men’s families disclosed that they had been on a mission to abduct Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former warlord-turned-president. The men, detained in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, face possible death penalties, having been charged with planning to overthrow the president of the tiny West African country. Seventy suspects have been remanded in custody at Zimbabwe’s top security prison. Fifteen others are incarcerated in Equatorial Guinea, accused of accepting an offer from exiled opposition leaders of $1.8 million (£1m) and oil rights to overthrow the Government. However, family and friends told South African newspapers today that the men were simply planning to use Guinea as a staging post on a mission to capture Mr Taylor. He carries a $2 million (£1.1m) bounty to be paid by America on delivery to the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone.
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8928