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HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Sixty-one accused mercenaries held in Zimbabwe for more than a year for alleged involvement in a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea were deported to South Africa on Sunday, where they could face charges of violating that country's anti-mercenary laws.
A lawyer for the men, Jonathan Samkange, said Zimbabwe released all 62 men who completed their yearlong sentence on immigration charges. Home Affairs spokesman Nkosana Sibuyi told the South African Press Association that one man was left behind in Harare because he was Zimbabwean.
South Africa is embarrassed about its reputation as a ready source of mercenaries, many of whom used to fight in apartheid-era defense forces. Some of the men held in Zimbabwe were of Angolan and Namibian origin who joined forces with South Africans against liberation movements in their own countries in the 1980s.
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