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2008-06-15 Africa Subsaharan
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Show trial for British mercenary accused of Guinea plot
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Simon Mann, the Old Etonian mercenary accused of plotting a coup against the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, will appear in the dock on Tuesday amid growing evidence that the government in the capital, Malabo, is planning a show trial designed to embarrass its enemies.
| I'm tearing up .. no wait, it's the Visine ... |
After claims by Amnesty International that a group of Mann's alleged co-conspirators - including the leader of the alleged advance party, Nick du Toit - was denied a fair trial in 2004, Equatorial Guinea's government is again deploying the tactics it has used to ensure the outcome of three previous trials since 1998. Amnesty says it has been told that Mann's local lawyer, Ponciano Mbomio Nvo - who had said he planned to introduce a plea of not guilty despite Mann's confession - has been suspended from practising law for 'defaming' the president, a ploy the authorities in Malabo have used a number of times before to interfere with the defence in political trials.
The case against Mann and his fellow defendants, claims Amnesty, was completed only last Thursday. The next day the country's attorney general announced the date of the three-day trial, giving the defence almost no time to look at it. Under Equatorial Guinea's trial law - a system modelled on Spain's system of investigating magistrates - both the prosecution and defence are supposed to have several weeks to 'qualify' or challenge the case.
Amnesty is also concerned that Mann's trial will follow the pattern set in previous major cases, where no material evidence is presented and the judge instead relies on confessions extracted under torture or duress. The location of the three-day trial is being kept a closely guarded secret until the opening day, with high security at the country's ports.
Mann, a former officer in the SAS, was arrested in 2004 with 70 other men when his plane landed in Zimbabwe to collect a shipment of arms purchased from the country's state arms manufacturer. Another group, which included du Toit, was arrested in Equatorial Guinea itself. Together they were accused of hatching a plot to overthrow the country's president, who seized power in a coup in 1979.
| I must say that I'm having trouble working up much sympathy for a Euro caught in a coup attempt in Africa ... |
The heir to a brewing fortune and the son and grandson of England cricket captains, Mann - who co-founded the controversial mercenary company Sandline with Tim Spicer - was extradited to Equatorial Guinea earlier this year after serving almost four years of a sentence in Zimbabwe for buying arms illegally.
Although Mann 'confessed' in a television interview that he was the 'manager' of the plot, he denied he was the 'main man'. He did, however, implicate Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, as part of the conspiracy. Mann's family has said the interview was given 'under duress' from the authorities in Malabo, as part of a plea bargain to mitigate a sentence which potentially could have carried the death penalty. 
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Posted by Steve White 2008-06-15 00:00||
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Posted by Besoeker 2008-06-15 09:39||
2008-06-15 09:39||
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