British Mercenary Mann Trial Opens in Equatorial Guinea Under Heavy Security

Reading audio




17 June 2008

The trial of British mercenary Simon Mann has started in EquatorialGuinea under heavy security. Mann along with several suspectedassociates is being tried in connection with a failed 2004 coup plotagainst President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. VOA's Nico Colombant reportsfrom our regional bureau in Dakar.

British mercenary Simon Mann and others being tried were brought to the court in Malabo in a convoy of armored vehicles.

Journalistswere allowed inside, but had to leave phones, cameras, and pensoutside, and were told to remove their shoes. They were givenflip-flops instead.  

Mann faces the death penalty on charges ofcrimes against the head of state, crimes against the government andcrimes against the peace and independence of the state.

Heserved several years in jail in Zimbabwe for attempting to possessdangerous weapons, before being extradited this year to EquatorialGuinea.  

Mann, who is in his 50s and comes from a Britishfamily with a brewing fortune, helped create two security firms,Executive Outcomes and Sandline International, which were associatedwith mercenary activity during the 1990s.  

Prosecutors say hetried to fly a plane full of weapons to Equatorial Guinea as part ofthe 2004 plot to remove President Nguema in exchange for future oilpayments.

Eleven other men, including several foreigners, areserving sentences of between 13 and 34 years in oil-rich EquatorialGuinea in connection with the failed coup plot.

Fabian NsueNguema was the lawyer for that group's alleged leader, South Africanarms dealer Nick Du Toit, as well as for six Equatorial Guineans whoalso went on trial Tuesday.

He says authorities have given himvery little time to defend his clients, since the charges were onlyannounced last Friday, giving him just the weekend and Monday toprepare.

Human rights lawyers say most accused in the case have been tortured while in jail and forced to sign or make statements.  

Aresearcher working on the Equatorial Guinea desk for London-basedAmnesty International, Muluka-Anne Miti says another foreigner is alsogoing on trial.

"There is also a Lebanese businessman, MohamedSalam, who has been reportedly charged with being an accomplice to theattempted coup," he said. "This is reportedly based on accusationsthat he knew Elie Khalil who reportedly financed the attempted coup andthat Mohamed Salam repeatedly had information about this attempted coupbut did not pass it on to authorities."

Khalil is a Lebanese oilbusinessman based in London. The plot also involved the son of formerBritish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Mark Thatcher, who pleadedguilty to a role in the plot under a plea bargain agreement with SouthAfrican prosecutors to avoid jail.

Thatcher said he paid for amilitary helicopter used by the mercenaries in the failed plot, butmaintained that he believed it was to be used as an air ambulance.  

EquatorialGuinea authorities have said they would like Thatcher to be extraditedto Malabo and have issued an international arrest warrant against him.  

EquatorialGuinea says the aim of the plot was to put exiled opposition leaderSevero Moto in power. Moto is under house arrest in Spain on suspicionof arms trafficking.

Equatorial Guinea is sub-Saharan Africa'sthird biggest oil exporter. The ruling party of 1979 coup leaderturned president Obiang recently won 99 out of 100 seats for a newparliament. All media in the lightly populated former Spanish colonyis controlled by the government.