ZIMBABWE: A court in Zimbabwe yesterday convicted the British leader of an alleged coup plot against the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea on weapons charges, but acquitted most of the 69 other men held with him.
Former British special forces officer Simon Mann was found guilty of seeking to possess dangerous weapons and could face a up to 10 years in prison when sentence is passed on September 10th.
Sixty-six other defendants, including 64 who were travelling on South African passports when their plane was seized in Harare in March, were found not guilty by a magistrate at a make-shift courthouse in the Harare maximum security Chikurubi prison.
Most of the men, including the three-man aircrew, had last month pleaded guilty to lesser charges of violating Zimbabwe's immigration and civil aviation laws.
"There was no clear evidence to connect accused persons to the purchase of firearms. In fact the state conceded there was no direct evidence connecting them," said Harare magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe.
"The state has failed to discharge its onus of proving the accused persons guilty beyond reasonable doubt. In the result I find the accused not guilty as charged," he said to loud cheers from relatives and some of the defendants.
The verdict came just days after South African police arrested Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and charged him with involvement in financing the coup plot. Sir Mark denies the charges and was released on bail by a Cape Town magistrate.
One of Sir Mark's lawyers, Phillip Higgo, said he doubted that Mann's conviction would make things worse for his client.
A total of 84 foreigners, mostly South Africans, have been put on trial in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea on charges of involvement in an attempted coup in the latter country.
Two of the defendants were due to be freed as, unlike the rest of the suspects, they had not been aboard the plane that landed in Harare in March and thus did not face the immigration and aviation charges made against the others.