The "mercenaries" on board the US-registered Boeing 727/100 seized by the Zimbabwean authorities in the capital Harare together with its cargo of "military material" on Sunday could face the death penalty, the Zimbabwean foreign minister Stan Mudenge said today. "They are going to face the severest punishment available in our statutes, including capital punishment," Mudenge told reporters. According to the information released by the Harare authorities to date, the 65 presumed "mercenaries" on board the cargo plane with tail number N4610 apparently all come from African countries: 20 from South Africa, 18 from Namibia, 23 from Angola, two from the Democratic Republic of Congo and one from Zimbabwe. The aircraft was sold by the company 'Dodson Aviation Incorporated', based in Ottawa, Kansas (United States), to Logo Logistics Ltd (African according to some, British according to others) only a week ago. Meanwhile the episode continues to have repercussions thousands of kilometres from the Zimbabwean capital. Yesterday, speaking live on national radio, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Theodore Obiang (in power since 1968) confirmed that his men had thwarted an attempted coup against him. The news comes from MISNA sources, who say that Obiang himself said that the 15 mercenaries arrested in Malabo at the weekend during a large-scale police operation to verify information concerning the planned coup were the advance party of the group seized in Harare. According to Obiang, the "mercenaries" were financed by "enemy powers, multinational corporations and countries that do not like Guinea". The President of the former Spanish colony, the third oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, claims that the plan to overthrow him foresaw his murder and the installation of Severo Moto, the leader of the opposition formation 'Partido del Progreso', currently in exile in Spain, as Head of State. According to Obiang, the 80 mercenaries (15 held in Malabo and 65 in prison in Harare) were apparently led by a South African ex Lieutenant Colonel known as 'Nick', who allegedly received five million dollars (roughly four million euro) to complete the mission. The Zimbabwean foreign minister has said that he is in contact with the government of Malabo with the aim of getting to the bottom of the affair, also stressing that "this was not one mission". "After the diversion in Equatorial Guinea they were going to the Democratic republic of Congo," he said with reference to the mercenaries.[LC]

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