Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Fidelis Munyoro
31 January 2008
Harare — BRITISH mercenary Simon Mann yesterday lost his appeal against a magistrate's decision to have him extradited to Equatorial Guinea to face trial on charges of masterminding a plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo Nguema.
Last night the defence lawyer, Mr Jonathan Samkange of Byron Venturas and Partners, told journalists that he would today file a notice to appeal at the Supreme Court.
In a ruling delivered yesterday evening, the High Court upheld the decision of the lower court, saying the government of Equatorial Guinea had fulfilled the requirements by establishing a case against Mann sufficiently strong for him to be put on his defence in a trial.
Judge President Rita Makarau, with the concurrence of Justice Bharat Patel, handed down judgment after a spirited attempt by Mr Samkange in both the Supreme Court and High Court to block the announcement of the decision.
The defence contention was that it was improper for Justice Patel to hear the appeal on the grounds that when Mann was originally prosecuted for offences in Zimbabwe the judge was acting Attorney-General.
All the applications at both the Supreme Court and High Court were dismissed, paving way for the court to announce its ruling.
Justice Makarau, in her ruling, said the government of Equatorial Guinea established a prima facie case against Mann strong enough to warrant his extradition for trial.
She said while the evidence presented by Equatorial Guinea might not be sufficient to sustain the charges against Mann, it established a strong case that the mercenary would have been committed for trial had the offence been committed in Zimbabwe.
The Judge President said the standard proof required at this stage was not to put Mann on his defence during a trial on evidence upon which a court might convict, but evidence tending to link the mercenary to the alleged offence and to which he had to proffer an answer.
Justice Makarau, sitting with Justice Patel, heard the appeal in July last year.
Justice Patel said he fully agreed with the Judge President that the government of Equatorial Guinea had established the requisite prima facie case against Mann in terms of the Extradition Act.
"I am inclined to agree with the Judge President, albeit tentatively, that the appellant has failed to adduce the evidence necessary to sustain his appeal on the ground that he would be subjected to torture in the respondent state," said Justice Patel.
Mr Samkange intends to make a final appeal.
Earlier on, the defence had its appeal against the decision by the High Court refusing to interdict the court to hand down judgment on the appeal case, thrown out by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku sitting in his chambers.
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Zimbabwe should be praised for being couragous to send a western mercenary to face trial in Equitorial Guinea. Africans need to work together more and more. Much praise to Zimbabwe, despite threats for more economic sanctions from the UK Gov't, Zimbabwe refused to be bullied by Britain on the Mann issue.
Yeah, lets all praise Zimbabwe for their strength and courage of forcing millions of their people to starve to death.
You dumb ass people.
"Knowing that the condition of misery, fear and lack of peace is generally organized by foreign powers "
Isnt it just simply the powers to be! namely the governments running these countries, are utterly useless, greedy, selfish , and have no care to look after there own people, only to fill there pockets with money, lol
then blame everyone else! lol,
It sound like you are one of these guys lol
I praised the Zimbabwen decition because that is the way all the trouble in africa today started. had it been that mann was´t caught, it would have been the work of the guineans. I mean, without the outsiders. Africa would have be in peace today. They will throw a stone and hide there hand and ask who threw th stone. The guineans should thank there God and the Zimbabwen govt. Beacuse thousands of lives would have lost.
hahahahaha
africa would be at peace.
tell that to the tribes killing each other in sierra leone and kenya.
you people are blind stupid or both
This is the case of a Briton who, with other friends and accomplishes of his, feels the people in Equitorial Guinea should not live in peace and decided to take action in that vein to try to destroy peace in the country and create a situation that could cause the death of thousands or tens of thousands of the citizen. A curious interested observer would start wondering why a Briton decided to come up with such a hedious plan to damage the welfare and cause misery to another race. Then the question swells up in one's mind, 'could the attempt have been masterminded solely by Simon Mann and his group or could it have been part of a much bigger plan to cover the whole of Africa? Looking around the continent of Africa today especially south of the Sahara occupied by the black race, one sees that a good fraction of the number of countries are living in a state of constant insecurity totally devoid of peace. Presently, those countries include Somalia, Congo, Sudan, Chad, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Countries like Mozambique, Ethiopia, Angola,Sierra Leone, Liberia also languished in total state of warefare for decades. Knowing that the condition of misery, fear and lack of peace is generally organized by foreign powers from outside the continent, it is feared that the attempt by Simon Mann is part of a grand plan by some powers outside the continent to keep the black Africa under contant stress of insecurity and devoid of peace.