A Zimbabwe judge is to hand down sentences today against the alleged mastermind of a coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, Briton Simon Mann, and 67 other suspected mercenaries who were convicted two weeks ago.
Mann, a friend of Mark Thatcher who has been charged with bankrolling the alleged plot, faces up to 10 years in prison for attempting to illegally purchase weapons in Zimbabwe that the prosecution alleges were to be used in the coup.
The 67 other men, including the three-man crew that flew a plane from South Africa to Harare on March 7 to pick up the weapons, have been convicted of minor offences under Zimbabwe's immigration and aviation laws.
The sentences will be the first to be handed down in connection with the alleged conspiracy to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
The affair has also drawn in 19 suspected mercenaries on trial in Malabo and a handful of influential British personalities that Malabo claims provided financial backing.
Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was arrested on Aug. 25 in Cape Town and has been called to testify about his alleged involvement before a South African judge later this month.
South African lawyer Alwyn Griebenow declined to comment on the possible fate awaiting Mann, founder of the now defunct mercenary outfit Executive Outcomes, who has been held in Chikurubi maximum security prison along with the other men.
"We expect the case to be finalized on Friday but I am not willing to speculate about the outcome," Griebenow said.
Mann allegedly recruited the suspected mercenaries to topple Obiang, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea for 25 years, and to pave the way for the return from exile in Spain of opposition politician Severo Moto.
For breaching immigration laws, the group of 67 men could be locked up for a year and a half or get away with a Z$1.5 million (US$267) fine, while convictions under the aviation law carry a maximum jail sentence of one month or a fine of Z$200 (about US$0.03).
The prosecution has asked for jail terms of between one year and 18 months for the immigration offences.
Two other suspected mercenaries, Harry Carlse and Lourens Horn, who were acquitted in Zimbabwe returned to South Africa and last week turned themselves in to authorities who said they are considering formal charges against them under South Africa's anti-mercenary law.
The sentences in Harare will bring to a close a six-week trial during which the prosecution rejected the suspected mercenaries' claims that they were on their way to guard a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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