JOHANNESBURG — Four South African mercenaries and a British citizen granted pardons for a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea will not be prosecuted, the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) said yesterday.

“The Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Mokotedi Joseph Mpshe SC, has decided not to prosecute UK citizen Simon Mann and the four South Africans,” NPA spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said in a statement.

Mann and South Africans Nick du Toit, George Alerson, Sergio Cardoso and Jose Sundays were convicted in a trial for plotting to overthrow the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea and oust long-serving President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Their release coincided with a visit by President Jacob Zuma.

Mhaga said that according to SA law regulating foreign military assistance, it is a serious offence for any South African resident to perform any action aimed at overthrowing a foreign government.

However, he said, according to the constitution and other legislation, a person already acquitted or tried for a crime cannot be tried again.