Harare court orders Simon Mann extradition to Equatorial Guinea

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 May 2007

A Harare magistrate has rejected defence arguments that Simon Mann would not receive a fair trial and would be tortured in Equatorial Guinea, and has said he should be extradited.

A Reuters report from Harare said magistrate Omega Mugumbate issued the ruling that Mann could be extradited to the West African country to face coup plot charges. The ruling comes just two days before Mann was expected to be released from Chikurubi prison just outside Harare.

The former British special forces officer has been held at the high level prison since he was convicted in September 2004 of attempting to purchase weapons without a licence as part of an alleged coup plot against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. His lawyers have appealed the decision.

Mann, who testified during the extradition hearing, has said he cannot go to Equatorial Guinea because the authorities there will not spare his life and that he would be tortured. His lawyer Jonathan Samkange said international law barred the extradition of people indicted in political trials or facing possible torture. Reuters quotes Samkange saying; ‘It would be a very sad day if Zimbabwe were to extradite a man against all international conventions.’

But Equatorial Guinea Attorney General Jose Ole Obono told the hearing that although his government believed Mann was the ‘intellectual head’ of the coup plot, he would get justice. Sixty-six other defendants arrested with Mann after their plane stopped in Harare served less than one year in jail after pleading guilty to charges of violating the country’s immigration and civil aviation laws.

But eleven others, including a number of foreigners, are serving sentences ranging from 13 to 34 years in an Equatorial Guinea jail in connection with the coup plot. Relatives say they are abused and receive unfair treatment. One German suspect died after what Amnesty International said was torture.
Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was fined and received a suspended sentence in South Africa for his involvement in the attempted coup.
Equatorial Guinea has close links with the Mugabe Regime. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled the country since 1979, when he seized power in a coup. A presidential aide on state radio once said: ‘He (Obiang) can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell because it is God himself, with whom he is in permanent contact, and who gives him this strength.’