- HARARE (IOL) - Dozens of
foreigners held in Zimbabwe on suspicion of being mercenaries could face
the death penalty, Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said on Wednesday.
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- "They are going to face the severest punishment
available in our statutes, including capital punishment," Mudenge
told a news briefing. "We will give them all the rights they are entitled
to."
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- Zimbabwe detained 64 men on Sunday after the seizure
of a US-registered cargo plane which officials said was carrying "military
material". Officials on Tuesday said the suspects were mainly Angolans,
South Africans and Namibians.
-
- They said they had also arrested a man identified as
Simon Mann, a former member of the Britain's Special Air Service elite
forces, and two other men who were at the airport to meet the plane when
it landed in Harare on Sunday.
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- 'We are going about it deliberately'
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- Mudenge said Zimbabwe was in contact with the government
of Equatorial Guinea, where officials on Tuesday announced the arrest of
15 suspected foreign mercenaries they described as an advance party connected
to the group detained in Harare.
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- "We are going about it deliberately and we are going
to liase with our friends in Equatorial Guinea... with our friends in South
Africa," Mudenge said.
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- "Apparently this was not one mission... after the
diversion in Equatorial Guinea they were going to the DRC (Democratic Republic
of Congo)," he said.
-
- South African Foreign Ministry officials have said any
South Africans involved in mercenary activities were breaking the country's
laws.
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- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1078913701751B251&set_id=1
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