SA in secret talks over 'mercenary' transfer

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By Agencies

A DEFENCE lawyer for the 70 alleged mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe accused the South African government on Monday of conducting secret talks with UK lawyers to help transfer team leader, Simon Mann, to England.

"I have no proof but I was told that Mann's legal team did not want to go ahead with the Constitutional Court (appeal) case against the South African government as they felt it would piss off certain government officials in South Africa," said attorney Alwyn Griebenow. He said he would officially be withdrawing as Mann's defence lawyer when the trial resumed on July 21 in Zimbabwe.

He was told on Friday that Mann's family had appointed US attorney Rebecca Gaskill to lead his defence. She would be backed up by legal representatives in the UK as well as another team in Harare.

The UK group reportedly includes Mann's brother, Edward, an insurance litigator who has engaged a British barrister.

Griebenow is challenging a Pretoria High Court decision not to force the South African government into seeking an extradition of its citizens from Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea.

Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe turned down an application last month for an order compelling the South African government to seek the men's extradition. They are suspected of plotting a coup d'etat in Equatorial Guinea.
Griebenow alleged that the South African government was assisting Mann's defence teams in getting him moved from Chikurubi Prison outside Harare to the UK.

Griebenow's senior defence counsel assisting him with the case, Francious Joubert, spoke to Sapa from London, moments before entering a meeting with Mann's new legal team.

"I am not sure what is going on but am hoping to find out soon," he said.
Joubert said he was not aware that he no longer represented Mann.

"They have not ended my mandate yet as far as I am aware," he said.

Joubert, who has been in the UK for the past 12 days, said he had heard that a new team had been appointed and that they "did not want to upset the South African government".

"They (Mann's new legal team) do seem to know something we don't," he said.

Mann's Zimbabwean representatives were also in the UK on Monday as well as Mann's wife Amanda, who is reportedly expecting their seventh child. On the Zimbabwe trial, Griebenow said he was still confident that if a fair trial was possible, they would be successful in saving the men.

He did not feel the break-away by Mann had damaged his defence or scuttled the credibility of the group.

The South African Government was not immediately available for comment.

According the Guardian Online, Mann (51) has spent most of his career in the special forces or as a mercenary. The son of an England cricket captain who made a fortune from a brewing empire, he was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and joined the Scots Guards, a regiment of the royal household.

He then applied and passed the gruelling selection procedure for the SAS and became a troop commander in 22 SAS, specialising in intelligence and counter-terrorism. He served in Cyprus, Germany, Norway, Canada, central America and Northern Ireland.

Mann moved to South Africa where he founded Executive Outcomes, accused by many of being a mercenary outfit.
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