The Zimbabwean authorities were yesterday accused of a criminal conspiracy to kidnap and deport the British mercenary Simon Mann after it emerged he was held incommunicado for a day and then secretly flown out of the country before his appeal process was finished.
Contrary to claims by Zimbabwean officials, the Guardian has established that the ex-SAS officer was bundled out of Harare on Friday in a military plane and arrived in Equatorial Guinea on Saturday. He was taken to the notorious Black Beach prison to await trial for an attempted coup plot in the west African state four years ago.
His whereabouts was revealed to a panel of British law lords yesterday as a hearing began into Equatorial Guinea’s damages claim against alleged plotters.
The latest drama began on Wednesday when the high court in Harare rejected Mann’s appeal against deportation. When his lawyer was unable to visit him he sought an injunction not to remove him until a final appeal. Two Zimbabwean officials then presented affidavits saying he had been extradited that morning. "They clearly lied," said Anthony Kerman, Mann’s London lawyer. "This was a criminal conspiracy."
The Guardian has seen affidavits from Evans Siziba, Zimbabwe’s principal immigration officer, and a police superintendent, Crispen Makedenge. Both men say Mann was taken from prison in the early hours of Thursday and handed to Equatorial Guinea officials, who left the country in a military plane at about 5.30am.
Mann was first arrested at Harare airport in March 2004 when his plane, en route from South Africa, touched down with 67 mainly black South African former soldiers to pick up weapons. They were charged with illegally buying arms and he was sentenced to seven years, reduced to four.
In Mann’s bid to escape prosecution he suggested to friends, including Sir Mark Thatcher, that it might take "a splodge of wonga" to get him out. Thatcher pleaded guilty in South Africa in 2005 to helping to charter a helicopter he suspected "might be used for mercenary activity".
On Mann’s release last year he was rearrested on an extradition warrant from Equatorial Guinea.
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