British mercenary due in Zimbabwe court

Apr 13, 2007, 7:15 GMT

Harare - British mercenary Simon Mann was Friday due to appear in court in the Zimbabwe capital Harare to defend himself against extradition to Equatorial Guinea, his lawyer said.

Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea is trying to have the former SAS officer extradited to Malabo to face charges of plotting to topple the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Simon is supposed to be giving evidence today, defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone interview.

Mann was arrested in Harare in March 2004 along with dozens of other suspected soldiers of fortune. The Zimbabwe government accused them of being en route to Equatorial Guinea to overthrow the government, but the men denied this.

Most of Mann's alleged accomplices were released two years ago after serving year-long jail terms for minor immigration offences, the only ones the Zimbabwean authorities could pin on them.

Mann, who was convicted of more serious security and firearms offences, is due to be released next month after having served two- thirds of a four-year jail term.

The government of Equatorial Guinea began its application to have the former British SAS commando extradited in February.

Defence lawyer Samkange argued then that Zimbabwean and international laws do not allow someone to be extradited to a requesting country if they cannot be guaranteed a fair trial, and where they could face execution.

Equatorial Guinea's attorney general responded by saying Mann would receive an open and fair trial and claimed Malabo's courts would not impose the death penalty in the case of a conviction.

Under the central African country's laws, plotting to overthrow the government is punishable by the death penalty or a 30-year jail term.