"It's just a postponement until tomorrow. We are going through the charges. Both the state and the defence have consented to the delay," lawyer Jonathan Samkange said.
The alleged coup-plotters were arrested at Harare airport on March 7 upon arrival from South Africa to pick up weapons they say were to be used for security work on diamond mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But authorities say the men, from Angola, the DRC, Namibia and South Africa, were on their way to join 15 other suspected mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea to overthrow longtime leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
The “Harare 70” are charged with breaching Zimbabwe's firearms, security, immigration and aviation laws.
If convicted, the men face a fine or a five-year jail term, but the real question will be whether President Robert Mugabe will extradite them to Equatorial Guinea where they could be sentenced to death.
A hearing started more than two hours late at a makeshift court in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of Harare, where the men had been held since their arrest.
Initially scheduled to start Monday, the trial was last week delayed by two days to allow relatives to appeal to South Africa's highest court to have the men extradited back home to face trial.
The families are still awaiting judgement in that case. – Sapa-AFP.
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