A Zimbabwean court will rule next week whether a former British special forces officer alleged to be the ringleader in a coup plot against the Equatorial Guinean government will be extradited there.
In an extradition hearing in Harare, state prosecutors argued there was evidence that Simon Mann had led a group of mercenaries headed for West Africa when they were arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 and should be tried in Equatorial Guinea.
Mann was arrested with other suspects when their aircraft landed at Harare's main airport to collect weapons bought from the Zimbabwe state arms-maker. He was sentenced to four years under sweeping security laws but is due for release later this month on good behaviour.
All 70 other alleged mercenaries were freed after serving minor sentences in Zimbabwe.
The group of mostly former soldiers, who claimed they were en route to guard mining facilities in the DRC, were found with uniforms identical to those of President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma's presidential guard, said prosecutor Joseph Jagada, winding up the extradition hearing on Wednesday.
But Jonathan Samkange, Mann's defence attorney, said Equatorial Guinea attorney-general Jose Olo Obono, who testified in the case, failed to answer charges by international humanitarian groups of torture and abuse of prisoners, including other coup suspects.
He said Mann had been convicted only on weapons possession and security charges within Zimbabwe, and not on the coup allegations. Zimbabwe had no obligation to extradite Mann, who would not get a fair trial and faces torture and execution in Equatorial Guinea. - Sapa-AP