Lawyers for the South African government said the state...

Lawyers for the South African government said the state could not intervene to save 70 alleged coup-plotters detained in Zimbabwe from extradition to Equatorial Guinea where they would face the death penalty. The 70 suspected mercenaries had launched an urgent court application to try and force the South African government to bring them back. The men faced possible extradition to Equatorial Guinea where they could be sentenced to death for allegedly planning to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the long-serving leader of the oil-rich central African nation.
State advocate Ishmael Simenya told the Pretoria High Court that South Africa could not request that the group be sent back home for trial because the men did not meet the requirements of Zimbabwe extradition regulations.
"These demand that a person to be extradited has either been charged with an offence or has been convicted of one. They also require that the offence must also be an offence in Zimbabwe," Simenya said. Zimbabwe did not have legislation forbidding mercenary activities. He added that the South African government had no legal rights to prevent the extradition of its citizens from one country to another. Simenya also argued that South African constitution, which forbade the death penalty, could not be enforced in a foreign country.