Zimbabwean prosecutors want South African spies to give evidence at the trial of 70 alleged mercenaries when it resumes next month. The trial was adjourned yesterday until August 18 after the state withdrew all but immigration and aviation charges against the three aircrew. South African defence lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said the Zimbabwe prosecutors had asked for the delay. “They want people from the National Intelligence Agency to come to Zimbabwe to give evidence about the conspiracy. The prosecutors did not know whether they would be available next week, so the case was postponed to August 18,” he said. The men were arrested when they arrived in Harare in a Boeing 727 aircraft on March 7, allegedly to collect weapons. South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils and Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota have been reported as saying they were arrested after South African authorities tipped off Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe prosecutors hope the NIA agents will strengthen their charge of a conspiracy against the men. They want the agents to corroborate their allegation that the men, led by Simon Mann, a former officer in Britain’s elite Special Air Services, stopped off in Harare to load weapons to use in a coup d’etat in Equatorial Guinea. The men have all said they were instead on their way to guard a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 70 have already spent nearly five months in detention in Zimbabwe’s Chikurubi maximum security prison 30km from the capital. “When we resume on the 18th (August) we hope we will be in a position to go to finality. We have lost too much time already,” magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe said yesterday in the makeshift court in a shed inside the walls of Chikurubi prison.

All but immigration and aviation charges were withdrawn yesterday against Niel Steyl, Ken Payne and Hendrik Hamman, the aircrew who flew the Boeing 727 from South Africa to Harare on March 7. The purpose of the flight to Harare was allegedly to collect weapons, including rocket launchers, which Mann had bought for US$180 000 from the parastatal company Zimbabwe Defence Industries. Griebenow said yesterday the three crew would not be charged with any further offences in this trial. Mann looked relaxed and joked with his defence team yesterday, despite facing up to 10 years in a Zimbabwe prison after admitting to charges under Zimbabwe’s security laws of attempting to acquire “dangerous” weapons. But he denied actually buying a range of military hardware without a permit. This additional charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. Prosecutors have reserved the right to add to charges laid so far but Griebenow was confident that no more would be laid against the aircrew. The rest of the group, mostly former combatants in the former SA Defence Force, and all of whom arrived in Zimbabwe on South African passports, still face two charges of attempting to possess dangerous weapons and conspiracy to purchase them. “They are in pretty good shape. Disappointed that there was no conclusion, but there is nothing we can do about that,” Griebenow said.

Source: ZWNEWS.COM