Zimbabwe is finalizing charges against more than 60 suspected mercenaries detained this week in what officials say was a plot to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Acting Attorney General Bharat Patel said the men would probably not appear in court until yesterday and that "the relevant law enforcement agencies" were drawing up charges.
"They are not going to appear in court today, as far as I'm aware ... The likelihood is that they'll appear in court tomorrow, if not tomorrow then soon thereafter," Patel told state radio.
Zimbabwean lawyer Jonathan Samkange said he had been hired by a firm of South African attorneys to represent the suspects, and would be meeting his clients on Friday.
"I have already talked to the police ... and I will be going to see my clients tomorrow to take instructions. I have been assured the suspects are going to enjoy their constitutional rights to fair treatment and a fair hearing," Samkange said.
Patel said charges against the group were likely to include contravening the Civil Aviation Act and that "there may also be other charges relating to the Firearms Act, possibly also in relation to our immigration laws."
Zimbabwe's foreign minister said on Wednesday the men, who were arrested on Sunday after the US-registered Boeing 727 landed in Harare, could face a possible death penalty, although none of the charges listed by Patel would bring that sentence.
Officials said the men had implicated the British, American and Spanish spy agencies in a plot to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer.
US and Spanish officials have denied any involvement, while Britain's Foreign Office declined comment.
The seized plane's operator, based in Britain's Channel Islands, has said it was flying the men to the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide security for mining operations.
Zimbabwe has identified the men, who are both black and white, as coming from South Africa, Angola, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and one from Zimbabwe.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RSS