By Gershwin Wanneburg
Sixty-two South Africans freed by Zimbabwe may face anti-mercenary charges at home after more than a year in jail over a foiled coup in Equatorial Guinea, officials said on Monday.
The men's lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow, told the national broadcaster that he expected his clients to be charged and to receive suspended sentences. South African prosecutors said it wanted to try the masterminds of the coup plot.
The country has strict laws against mercenary activity.
'At this stage there is no offence committed if the guys go to Iraq' "If they are convicted in our courts of law, I am of the opinion that a term of imprisonment will be imposed, which will be suspended for a lengthy period," Griebenow told SAfm radio.
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Equatorial Guinea sentenced 11 foreign nationals in November to between 14 and 34 years on charges of trying to overthrow the country's president.
Zimbabwe prosecutors linked those charges to the case involving the 62 South Africans.
They were released on Saturday after serving sentences for weapons and immigration offences. Arrested after their plane was impounded in Harare in March last year, they were not directly convicted with taking part in the plot.
South African media reported that one of the 62 had been held back in Zimbabwe while his nationality was clarified.
South African officials could not be reached on Monday to comment on the group's likely fate, but a National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson said the authority hoped the men could provide information on others involved with the plot.
"We think that these men were footsoldiers. We think that there are people who were much higher up in the hierarchy that were planning this attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea and those are the people that we would want to bring to justice in South Africa," spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi told SAfm.
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