Seventy suspected mercenaries charged in Zimbabwe with plotting to kill the president of Equatorial Guinea will be tried in a court set up in the jail where they are held, a judge ruled Monday.
High Court Judge Tedius Karwi threw out an application by the men’s lawyers for them to appear in an ordinary court which they said would ensure an open and fair trial.
“It is a fact that the state has serious security and logistical concerns ...I am of the opinion that Chikurubi Maximum Prison is the only compromise venue ...The application is dismissed,” Karwi said.
He said the hearing should be held in a large room within the prison complex to seat at least 100 people, and that the public, including journalists, should be given easy access.
Defense lawyer Francois Joubert had argued that his clients had a constitutional right to appear in an ordinary court to ensure transparency.
The 70 suspected mercenaries — from South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo and one from Zimbabwe — were arrested March 7 after their U.S.-registered Boeing 727 plane landed in Harare and was seized by Zimbabwean authorities.
The men say they were heading to Congo to guard mines. But Zimbabwe says they were on a mission to oust Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and has charged them with plotting to murder him and his bodyguards.
Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer, says it has arrested another 20 men it says were part of a plot funded by foreign powers and multinational firms to put in power an exiled opposition politician living in Spain.