Harare - The Zimbabwean High Court will this week hear an
appeal against extradition by alleged British mercenary Simon Mann,
reports said Wednesday.
In May the Harare Magistrates Court ruled that Mann should be
extradited to Equatorial Guinea to face trial for allegedly
plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema's government
in 2004.
In his notice of appeal, Mann wants the court to nullify his
extradition to Equatorial Guinea and grant an order to have him
released from jail and deported to England, said the official
Herald newspaper.
The appeal is due to be heard on Thursday. The former British
special forces officer is being held at Chikurubi Maximum Security
Prison on the outskirts of Harare.
Mann completed his mandatory two-thirds of a four-year jail term
in May this year, following his conviction in 2004 on charges of
breaching Zimbabwe's firearms and security laws.
He is now being held at Chikurubi on an immigration detention
warrant, said the Herald.
The charges against Mann arose after he and dozens of other
suspected soldiers of fortune aboard a Boeing 727 were arrested at
Harare International Airport in March 2004, allegedly while en route
from South Africa to Malabo to stage a coup.
All 70 men arrested at the time denied the charges. They said
were bound for the Democratic Republic of Congo to guard diamond
mines.
Most of the men were slapped with one-year jail terms for minor
immigration and aviation offences and were released in 2005. But
Mann got a seven-year sentence, later reduced to four.
Earlier this year the Magistrates Court heard that Mann would
face torture and possible execution if he were extradited to Malabo.
But that country's attorney general claimed Mann would only face a
jail term if convicted of treason.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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