Harare, Zimbabwe – Sixty- one suspected mercenaries held in Zimbabwe for more than a year for alleged involvement in a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea were deported to South Africa on Sunday, where they could face charges of violating that country’s anti-mercenary laws.
An attorney for the men, Jonathan Samkange, said Zimbabwe released all the men who completed their year-long sentence on immigration charges.
Home Affairs spokesman Nkosana Sibuyi said one man was left behind in Harare because he was Zimbabwean.
South Africa is embarrassed about its reputation as a ready source of mercenaries, many of whom once served in apartheid- era defense forces.
Some of the men held in Zimbabwe were of Angolan and Namibian origin who joined forces with South Africans against liberation movements in their own countries in the 1980s.
South African authorities said an investigation was continuing and the men could face charges in South Africa for violating anti-mercenary laws.
Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, pleaded guilty last year in a South African court to unwittingly helping to bankroll the coup attempt.
The men were arrested in March 2004 when their aging charter plane landed in Harare on the way to Equatorial Guinea.
Zimbabwean authorities charged them with plotting to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea.
During a lengthy trial last year, they denied being part of a coup plot and said they were bound for Congo to work security at a diamond mine.
The Zimbabwean court convicted them of relatively minor immigration charges after prosecutors failed to prove more serious weapons and coup conspiracy charges.
