Published by the government of Zimbabwe
30 January 2008
Harare — THE High Court will today rule on British mercenary Simon Mann's appeal against a magistrate's decision to have him extradited to Equatorial Guinea to face charges of plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo Nguema.
However, yesterday lawyers representing Mann unsuccessfully sought an interdict against the court from handing down judgment today and made a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court to have the matter removed from the roll indefinitely.
Mr Chris Venturas of Byron Venturas and Partners, who are representing Mann, confirmed the latest development.
He said Justice Ben Hlatshwayo dismissed the urgent application, which prompted the defence to make two applications at the Supreme Court, one as an appeal against Justice Hlatshwayo's ruling and another as a constitutional application seeking a permanent stay of the appeal ruling to be delivered today.
"We applied for an interdict against the judgment being delivered in the appeal because the judge handing down the ruling is the Acting Attorney General," said Mr Venturas."Due to the doctrine of separation of powers, the prosecutor and judge have to be two different people.
"We can't have the AG representing the State operate that way. There is a perception that he could be biased. We have also filed a constitutional application to the Supreme Court in terms of section 24 (1) for the stay of proceedings."
The Acting Attorney General, Justice Bharat Patel, presided over the appeal together with Judge President Rita Makarau in May last year. -- Court Reporter.
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