(Adds judge's comments, reaction, background)

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A South African court on Friday found eight accused mercenaries not guilty of planning a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, the South African Press Association (SAPA) said.

The Pretoria Regional Court dismissed the charges against the men, all South Africans, after a trial in which their lawyers argued that South Africa's government had tacitly backed the aborted 2004 coup attempt, SAPA said.

South African officials denied the allegation, but the presiding judge said on Friday there was credible evidence the coup had been either sanctioned by South Africa or that the accused thought it was.

Judge Peet Johnson said testimony provided by a state witness indicated South Africa at least knew about the coup attempt beforehand.

"How the South African secret service handled the operation by letting the men take off and only be arrested in a foreign country is also unfortunate," Johnson said at the conclusion of the trial. He said it was "eerie" that the men had been charged.

Prosecutors had accused the eight defendants of hatching a plot to kidnap Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and overthrow his government in the tiny West African nation, a major oil producer.

Obiang -- who himself seized power in a 1979 coup -- was to have been brought to the airport by accused ringleader Nick du Toit with the promise that a shipment of new 4x4 vehicles was on its way.

The African leader then would be overpowered and flown out of the country, while exiled opposition politician Severo Moto was to be flown in from Spain, a state witness had told the court in Pretoria, South Africa's capital.

Du Toit, a South African, is among 11 men serving sentences of between 13 and 34 years in jail in Equatorial Guinea for their part in the plot.

Altogether dozens of men were arrested for the scheme both in Equatorial Guinea and in Zimbabwe, which exposed the plot when it seized a plane full of suspected mercenaries in Harare.

South Africa had charged eight of the men with violating sections of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, which the government has promoted as a sign of its determination to prevent South Africans from serving as mercenaries in African conflicts.

"I feel great. I'm innocent and now I can go on with my life," Errol Harris, one of the accused, told SAPA after the judge's ruling.

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