Court hears AK-47 rifle found at home of man accused of threats to UK and US

Описание: (18 Feb 2011) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of Brian Roach's family coming out of the Alexandra Magistrate Court
2. Wide pan to the left of the Roach family walking to their cars
3. Family going into the cars about to leave
4. Roach's lawyer Cliff Alexander talking to media
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Cliff Alexander, lawyer for Brian Roach
"Mr Roach is not denying the factual elements per say, what Mr Roach is denying is that he committed an act of terrorism. Mr Roach is admitting that he committed an act of attempted extortion, which is what he did. He is not a terrorist. He is a 63-year-old grandfather."
6. Mthunzi Magha, spokesperson of the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) talking to media
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mthunzi Magha, spokesperson of the National Prosecution Authority (NPA):
"He is prepared to plead guilty to attempted extortion which we are not accepting. We say, we are gunning for the main charge, which is threatening to engage in terrorist activities and we are confident that we argue convincingly during legal argument that the act amounts to contravention to the act itself."
8. Wide exterior Alexandra magistrate court
STORYLINE
Police found an AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition at the home of a South African terror suspect accused of threatening the US and Britain, prosecutors said at a bail hearing in Johannesburg on Friday.
At the hearing, Brian Roach's lawyers said he would plead guilty to attempted extortion, but not to terror charges.
They also said the 64-year-old was no longer seeking bail.
"Mr Roach is admitting that he committed an act of attempted extortion, which is what he did. He is not a terrorist. He is a 63-year-old grandfather," Roach's lawyer Cliff Alexander said.
Roach is accused of sending e-mails threatening to spread foot-and-mouth disease in the US and Britain unless the governments paid him four (m) million US dollars.
Prosecutors have said police have not found evidence that Roach had the means to carry out his threats.
However, Mthunzi Magha, spokesperson of the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) said they were pushing for a conviction on terrorist charges.
"We are gunning for the main charge, which is threatening to engage in terrorist activities and we are confident that we argue convincingly during legal argument that the act amounts to contravention to the act itself," he said.
Roach, who owns an engineering firm outside Johannesburg and has business interests in Zimbabwe, is accused of saying in e-mails that he wanted the money to compensate white Zimbabwean farmers for land lost, and accusing the American and British governments of not doing enough to help the farmers.
About 4,000 white farmers have been forced from their farms since 2000 in what Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe calls a campaign to put more land in the hands of impoverished blacks.
Many of the beneficiaries, though, have been top politicians who are close to Mugabe.
South African investigators worked with US and British officials on the case, and arrested Roach on February 12 after a seven-month investigation.

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