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Ben Mungate 12.MAY.07
ex www.talkzimbabwe.com 12 May, 2007.
BRITISH mercenary, Simon Mann, will live to see another day in Zimbabwe after his lawyer, Jonathan Samkange made an urgent appeal to forestall his deportation, which the Zimbabwean government had secretly planned.
The government had planned to immediately deport Mann a few hours after the court had ruled in favour of his deportation.
According to sources within the government's secret service, a private jet was awaiting to transfer Mann to Malabo's Black Beach Prison, where he was supposed to be held pending the start of his trial.
Immediately after the court ruling on Wednesday, Mann was taken from his cell in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and allowed to change out of prison gab. He was then moved to another area of the prison where transport had been availed to take him to Harare International Airport.
British journalist Andrew Meldrum was deported out of Zimbabwe in the same manner. Although a court order barring his deportation had been granted, state security agents and immigration officials ignored it and drove him to the airport where he was bundled into a South African Airways plane.
As the state security agents were waiting for further instructions, Samkange rushed to the prison where he delivered an order from Magistrate Omega Mugumbate, suspending the extradition pending an appeal to the High Court. The order caught the officers unprepared and they immediately surrendered him back to prison officials.
His appeal is expected to be heard next week.
Speaking after serving the court order on both the prison officials, CIO and immigration officials, Samkange said, "The government's plans to deport him legally to Equatorial Guinea went wrong at the last minute. If we had not got an order in court immediately after the extradition order was handed down, he would already be in Malabo."
Mann, who needs an urgent hernia operation, has no doubt that his life now hangs in the balance. Unless the Zimbabwean High Court reverses Mugumbate's judgment, he is set to be deported to Malabo within a week or two.
COMMENT:
| Gift George • dlodlo20002000@yahoo.co.uk |
| MAY 12 • In as much as I am strongly critical about the actions of Simon Mann, I am of the view there it is crucially important that the Zimbabwean officials abide by court orders. Once an appeal has been noted technically the court order issued by the magistrate is suspended. In the event the High Court throws out the appeal Mann still has the right to lodge a further appeal with the Supreme court. This case clearly illustrates the fact that Zimbabwean magistrates lack indepedance. The second element is that at international law where one is likely to encounter torture of abuse in any form the courts are obliged to protect the person. Finally, it is rather strange that a country will seek to invoke provisions of an extradition treaty retrospectively. Once Simon has served his sentence the Zimbabwean government is obliged to release him pending the extradition hearing. |
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