Zimbabwean police yesterday charged 60 suspected mercenaries detained in the country with attempting to purchase firearms without a certificate, their lawyer said.

The 60 were among a group of some 67 men arrested by Zimbabwean authorities a week ago when their cargo plane landed at Harare International Airport.

The Zimbabwean government said they were on their way to the small west African country of Equatorial Guinea to stage a coup.

"Sixty people have been charged with attempting to purchase firearms without a firearms certificate," said Jonathan Samkange, a lawyer for the group.

They were also charged with breaching immigration laws, he said.

Samkange added: "My clients deny the allegations".

He said all 67 men on board the Boeing 727-100 would eventually be charged under the same law, while three other men, who came to meet them at the airport, would be charged with purchasing the weapons without a certificate.

Samkange named the three men as Simon Mann, Lawrence Horn and Malani Moyo.

He said that Mann - who would probably be charged today - claimed to have an agreement signed with the state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) to purchase weapons including AK 47s, grenades, rocket launchers and ammunition.

"How is it unlawful where there is an agreement?" said Samkange.

He said the passengers on board the plane said they had been hired in South Africa as security guards for a government-owned diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The claim was repeated last week by British-based Logo Logistics, which operated the plane at the time of it being impounded.

Zimbabwe Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi however, said last week the men were on their way to oil-rich Equatorial Guinea to join other coup plotters planning to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and replace him with exiled opposition figure Severo Moto Nsa.

Some 15 men were recently arrested in Equatorial Guinea's island capital of Malabo and were being suspected of being an advance party for the Zimbabwean group, allegedly planning to end Obiang's 25-year rule.

Mohadi said the Zimbabwean group was backed by US, British and Spanish agents, but this has been vehemently denied by the three countries.

Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge had said the men, if found guilty could face the death penalty.

Acting Zimbabwean Attorney General Bharat Patel, the top government lawyer, was quoted by the private Harare-based Standard newspaper as saying it was impossible for the state to charge the alleged coup plotters with mercenary-related activities.

"We don't have any legislation on mercenaries," he told the paper.

Meanwhile a South African weekend paper published the list of names of the 70 men suspected to have been involved in the alleged plot.

The Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport said 28 of the men were Namibian, 24 Angolan, 13 South African, three from the Democratic Republic of Congo, one was from Britain and one was Zimbabwean. – Sapa-AFP.