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 Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 1:57 pm Post subject: 'Mercenary' pilots to be freed |
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'Mercenary' pilots to be freed
22/07/2005 09:17
Harare - Two South African pilots jailed in Zimbabwe over their role in an alleged plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea are due to be released at the end of next week, their lawyer said on Thursday.
Pilot Jaap-Niel Steyl and Hendrik Jacobus Hamman will be released next Friday after serving two-thirds of their 16-month jail terms at Harare's top security Chikurubi prison, lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said via telephone from South Africa.
"They will only be released on July 29," said Griebenow. Last week the men's Zimbabwe-based lawyer said the men would either be released on July 21 or July 29.
The two pilots were part of a group of 70 alleged soldiers of fortune who were arrested in Harare last year when their plane landed to pick up weapons.
Most were released in May after serving eight months in jail, but the suspected ringleader, Briton Simon Mann, is still in prison.
The Zimbabwe government said the men wanted the weapons to overthrow the government of Teodoro Obaing Nguema in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.
But the men claimed they were on their way to provide security for diamond mines owned by billionaire diamond merchant André Action Jackson in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaïre). |
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