Harare, Zimbabwe ? The 64 suspected mercenaries who were aboard a cargo jet seized at the country’s main airport could face the death penalty, Zimbabwe’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge did not say what charges would be brought against them or when they might appear in court.

“They are going to face the severest punishment on our statutes, including capital punishment,” Mudenge said after a routine briefing for diplomats in the capital, Harare.

The crew of the aging Boeing 727, which was impounded late Sunday at Harare’s international airport, claimed the plane was headed for the central African nations of the Congo and Burundi and was carrying mineral mining personnel.

Zimbabwe authorities alleged the 64 were hired by a South African mercenary organization and British special forces, state television reported.

The television said Tuesday that investigations in Zimbabwe found the plane was linked to a South African firm known as “Executive Outcomes” that in the past hired mostly former apartheid-era South African soldiers for mercenary and security work across Africa.

The plane was sold about a week ago by a company in Rantoul, Kan., south of Lawrence in Franklin County. Officials with Dodson International said they sold the aircraft late last month to a British company doing business in South Africa. It was seized Sunday by the Zimbabwe government, which claims 64 mercenaries were on board with a cargo of military materiel.

Zimbabwe state television on Monday broadcast footage of a white plane with a blue stripe containing satellite telephones, radios, backpacks, sleeping bags, hiking boots, an inflatable raft, bolt cutters and what appeared to be a can of Mace. No weapons were shown.

State TV said the plane was carrying 20 South African nationals and groups of Angolans, Congolese, Namibians and one Zimbabwean with a South African passport.

Earlier, South Africa’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Jerry Ndou, was trying to verify the status of those on board the plane, the South African Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

The small west African state of Equatorial Guinea, where rich oil deposits were recently discovered, has said it is investigating reports foreign mercenaries were being recruited earlier this year to overthrow the government.