JURIST - Paper Chase: Zimbabwe convicts mercenary leader in Equatorial Guinea coup; EG government seeks extradition of Thatcher

A Zimbabwe court Friday convicted the leader of a group of mercenaries who had landed in Harare in March on their way to Equatorial Guinea to allegedly overthrow its government. Simon Mann, an ex-SAS officer and British citizen, claimed that he and 69 associates had been hired to provide security at diamond mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see this Paper Chase report on an earlier phase of the trial). While finding him guilty on arms charges the court nontheless acquitted 66 of the other men for insufficient evidence. In the meantime the government of Equatorial Guinea has formally requested the extradition from South Africa of Mark Thatcher, the 51-year old son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was arrested in Cape Town earlier this week in the wake of revelations at another coup-related trial in Equatorial Guinea itself that he had negotiated an arms deal with a coup plotter. The extradition request may be problematic, however, as Equatorial Guinea has no extradition treaty with South Africa. AP has more on the extradition bid. The tiny country, slightly smaller than Maryland with a population of barely 500,000, is the third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with major still-untapped reserves. From South Africa, the Mail & Guardian provides local coverage of legal developments.

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