Mark Thatcher arrested over coup plot

Sir Mark Thatcher was preparing to flee South Africa when he was arrested over his alleged involvement in a botched coup attempt, police in Cape Town alleged yesterday.

As the apparent plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea continued to unravel, the elite Scorpions police unit said it had arrested Sir Mark after learning that he had put his house on the market, arranged to sell four of his cars, found boarding school places in the US for his two children and bought his family plane tickets to the US.

When officers arrived at his home in the upmarket Constantia suburb of Cape Town at 7am on Wednesday, they found the Thatchers' suitcases packed and in the hall. The house had been placed on the market for 22m rand (£1.8m).

"That's why we moved to arrest him," Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the Scorpions, told the Guardian. "We did not want him to leave the country while we were investigating him."

Further details of the charges against Sir Mark emerged yesterday. According to police, they have evidence that he invested $271,000 to fund the logistics of the coup attempt. Mr Ngwema said the Scorpions were confident they had evidence against Sir Mark that will stand up in court. "We have evidence that Thatcher has been financing the plot against Equatorial Guinea. We found information when we searched his residence that is going to assist us in the case."

Sir Mark, 51 who denies involvement, is under effective house arrest for allegedly helping to fund the coup attempt.

Witness set to hand key documents to South African investigators


A computer expert in possession of a list which reveals the identities of the rich and influential figures who allegedly backed the Equatorial Guinea coup plot has become an important witness for the prosecution.

The Independent has learnt that James Kershaw is preparing to give evidence in South Africa in any future trial of Sir Mark Thatcher, who is accused of involvement in an alleged plot to depose the president of the oil-rich west African state.

Mr Kershaw, 24, is believed to be in possession of what has become known as the "Wonga List" - details of people, including public figures in Britain, who allegedly bankrolled an attempt by mercenaries to overthrow the regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and replace it with members of exiled opposition groups.

It is claimed that in return the backers would have been paid millions of pounds by the new government, as well as landing lucrative oil contracts.

The decision by Mr Kershaw to do a deal with the police means the secret "Wonga List" is now likely to be in the hands of the South African authorities, and details of those involved in the alleged coup plot are likely to emerge in the near future.

South African police officials said yesterday they were examining all the evidence obtained so far, and anticipated further arrests. They have refused to rule out seeking arrests and the extradition of suspects from Britain.

Mr Kershaw, who was born in South Africa but holds a British passport, has been named in court by a number of the arrested mercenaries as one of the recruiters in the alleged attempt to depose President Obiang.

He allegedly made a down payment of $90,000 (£50,000) in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, and also allegedly gave last-minute instructions, by telephone, to those involved in the plot.

Mr Kershaw made the decision to co-operate with the authorities after seeking legal advice. He is believed to have met officials recently in South Africa, but it is not known whether he is still in that country or whether he has returned to Britain.

Authorities in Equatorial Guinea have announced that it wants Sir Mark extradited from South Africa.

"The process for requesting extradition has started. There has been a first contact, an initial expression of interest from the government of Equatorial Guinea to South Africa," said Lucie Bourthoumieux, a lawyer representing the country.

South Africa's foreign ministry said earlier that it could not respond to questions on whether he might be extradited because such a request had not yet been made.

Sir Mark appeared to have been on the point of leaving South Africa when he was arrestedover his alleged involvement in the plot. He had sold his four cars, put his house in Cape Town up for sale for £1.8m and reserved flights to the United States for his wife and children next week.

Sir Mark's lawyers denied he was trying to flee the country.

It was also claimed last night that he had received death threats from associates of the mercenaries allegedly involved in the plot.

The revelations about the "Wonga List" come as trials take place in two countries over the alleged coup plot.

It is claimed that Briton Simon Mann, an African mercenary, was the ringleader of the alleged coup attempt. He was held in Zimbabwe, allegedly with a plane full of mercenaries on their way to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government.

The alleged plotters were said to be hoping to exploit the country's massive oil reserves after overthrowing President Obiang and installing their own leader, Severo Moto, currently in exile in Spain. Mann is one of 70 defendants held in Zimbabwe while another 19 people are on trial in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea.

The 19 defendants in Malabo are charged with attempting to assassinate a head of state, illegal possession of arms and explosives, terrorism, treason and endangering the public. Verdicts in their cases are expected on Saturday.

One of the defendants, from Germany, died in prison in Equatorial Guinea. The human rights organisation Amnesty International said it suspected that he had been tortured.

Equatorial Guinea, which pumps out 350,000 barrels of oil a day, has become Africa's third-largest oil producer since offshore development began in the mid-1990s.

President Obiang has ruled the nation with an iron fist since 1979, when he overthrew the former dictator, his uncle.

Sir Mark Thatcher once leapt to his mother's defence when questioned over her unflagging opposition to sanctions in South Africa, remarking, "my sympathy is with the struggling white community".

She in turn used to joke that she sent him there during adolescence "to clear up his spots". Perhaps it was unsurprising then that when the investigations into his business dealings in the United States became a little too intensive, he would turn his back on "the Texas crap" and build a new life for his family among the bougainvillea-draped mansions of Constantia, one of Cape Town's most prestigious suburbs.

Sir Mark and his family took up residence behind the imposing security fences of their £2m mock Tudor mansion in 1995. Here they could count among their neighbours Earl Spencer, the brother of Diana, Princess of Wales.

During the apartheid years, the Cape may have attracted a certain kind of British visitor, one prepared to see only the natural beauty of the place rather than the injustice of the racist state. But since the release of Nelson Mandela, the rich there can enjoy the world-class vineyards, the Royal Cape Golf Club and the spectacular views of Table Mountain, untarnished by associa- tions with apartheid.

During Sir Mark's journey to the tip of Africa, he is said to have amassed a fortune of £60m, a figure he claims is hugely overstated.

Born on 15 August 1953, he and his twin sister Carol were delivered by Caesarean section while their father, Denis Thatcher, a successful oil man, watched a Test match at the Oval.

The twins were completely different in temperament: Carol, outgoing and friendly; Mark introverted and serious.

Educated at Harrow, he passed just three O levels, living up to the nickname "Thickie". Failing his accountancy exams an impressive three times, he toyed with a number of possible careers. There was a job with a stockbroker, which took him to South Africa, a stint in Hong Kong, and a job as a jewellery salesman.

By 1977 his dream was to become a racing driver and he set up Mark Thatcher Racing. The operation was soon in the pits with cash problems but Mr Thatcher's determination to make it in the glamorous world of motor sport was eventually to turn him into a figure of fun for the British media.

Taking part in the 1982 Paris-Dakar rally he became lost in the Sahara desert, prompting his mother to be seen crying in public for the only time in her premiership. He had made no preparation for the event but refused to admit he was at fault. This arrogant streak emerged when the media finally caught up with him. He greeted stunned Fleet Street reporters by imitating Bruce Forsyth's popular catchphrase "nice to see you, to see you nice". His father had come to Algeria to help find him, but Mark refused to shake his hand for a photograph - declining to break the habit of a lifetime. Worse still he declined to thank the Algerian rescue team, leaving his father mortified.

His relationship with the press has always been difficult. When he was approached by Mark Hollingsworth, co-author of Thatcher's Gold: Life and Times of Mark Thatcher, he responded by fax: "As you have been informed, I do not wish to speak to you, nor do I have anything to say to you. Goodbye." Tales of his arrogance are legion. He once told an air stewardess who asked his name, "if you don't know by now you never will". His critics say he is insecure, paranoid, and neurotic. He is combative too, and has been known to introduce himself at functions as "the charmless Mark".

He was 26 when his mother swept into Downing Street. But he cut an unpopular figure in the corridors of power. Baroness Thatcher idolised him. "Mark could sell snow to the Eskimos, and sand to the Arabs," she once said. But to those that came across him, he was cold and forbidding. To those in charge of the Thatcher public image, he was a liability. He once asked Sir Bernard Ingham, Lady Thatcher's former press secretary, how he could help his mother win the 1987 general election. Mr Ingham replied: "Leave the country."

But worse was to come. Even before the fiasco in the desert, he had arrived in Oman at the same time as his mother, who was on official business there. He was operating an "international consultancy firm", Monteagle Marketing, acting as a facilitator, introducing people he thought could do business together.

According to Mr Hollingsworth: "The reality of his personality, like many sons of successful people, is that he was desperate to please but did not have the appropriate skills or work ethic to achieve anything. In desperation to do something to please his mother, he took short cuts. This involved getting in deals using his only asset - his name. This is when all the trouble began." A fervent believer in the free market, he believed it was his right to do business wherever and with whomever he chose.

In Oman he is alleged to have helped secure a multi-million deal for Cementation to build a university there. When the story broke in 1984, Lady Thatcher's closest allies warned he must be sent away. He moved to Texas where he met and married the millionaire Diane Burgdorf. In 1986, it is alleged he played a key role in brokering a deal between British Aerospace and the Saudi government, which earned him a commission in the region of £12m. Although the exact figure has never been confirmed, the money from this deal formed the bedrock of his personal fortune. The sale was part of the massive al-Yamamah arms deal, signed by Lady Thatcher. When his involvement emerged, nearly five years later, after his mother's exit from Downing Street, there was an outcry. Senior Thatcherites later admitted that if it had emerged during her premiership, she could have been forced to resign.

Trouble seemed to cling to Mr Thatcher wherever he went. Now a self-styled international businessman, wealthy and well-connected, he continued to court controversy. The security alarm company of which he was a director, Emergency Networks, went bust. Then there was a US Internal Revenue Service investigation into unpaid taxes. He also became embroiled in legal action over his takeover of the aviation fuels company, Ameristar.

In 1995, amid claims that his relationship was in trouble, he moved to South Africa. But still the allegations came. In 1995, it was claimed he used a hand-written note from his mother addressed to the ruler of Abu Dhabi to secure a business deal. His name was even mentioned in connection with the Pergau dam affair, in which British aid to Malaysia was allegedly linked to a £1.3bn contract.

Three years after he arrived in Cape Town there was yet more trouble. He was forced to answer questions during an anti-corruption investigation after his company Matrix Capital was found to have made 900 small loans to government officials. He claimed that he was merely trying to help.

But no wrongdoing has ever been proved. Since then he has kept his head down and last year he inherited his father's baronetcy. But this veneer of establishment acceptance has failed to undo the deep hostility he has generated over the years. The question is: will he escape the latest challenge to his reputation and return to the good life in the Cape?

Guvamombe acquitted 66 other suspected soldiers of fortune detained in Harare's high security Chikurubi Prison although they still face sentencing on other minor charges.

"The state failed to discharge its onus by proving the accused persons guilty beyond reasonable doubt," Guvamombe said of the 66 men who were on board a plane that was impounded in Harare in March when it stopped off to pick up weapons.

The judge said he would begin handing down sentences on September 10.

Mann and Nick du Toit, a South African being held as a co-conspirator in Equatorial Guinea, set up Executive Outcomes, which operated from Pretoria in South Africa and helped the Angolan government protect its oil installations from rebels during that country's long civil war.

Mann's lawyers argued that he and the 69 men detained with him were on their way to provide security at diamond mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and not to stage a putsch in Equatorial Guinea.

Prosecutors said Equatorial Guinea's Spanish-based rebel leader, Severo Moto, offered the group $1,8-million and oil rights to overthrow Nguema. The suspects were accused of ordering assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from the government-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries.

Thatcher arrested
The alleged coup conspiracy allegedly also includes Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Thatcher, a friend and neighbour of Mann's, was arrested at his Cape Town home on Wednesday and charged under South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act -- which bars mercenary activity -- for allegedly bankrolling the coup plot.

He denied the charges and was released on bail of R2-million.

On Thursday, the elite Scorpions unit said it arrested Thatcher because he was planning to move to the United States next week.

"I can confirm he was planning to leave the country," said spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi.

"He claims he was planning to relocate his family. He was supposed to leave for the US next week," Nkosi added.

Trial also starts in Equatorial Guinea
The judgement against Mann and his alleged accomplices comes in the same week as the trial of 18 other suspected coup plotters started in Equatorial Guinea.

South African businessman Nick du Toit this week admitted in a Malabo court to giving logistical support to the alleged coup. He said he was hired by Mann.

In Harare, defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said on Thursday that the events taking place in Equatorial Guinea and South Africa would have "no bearing whatsoever" on his clients' trial.

"My clients are not facing any charges in relation to coups," he said.

Zimbabwe, unlike South Africa, does not have laws that cover mercenary activities planned on foreign soil.

The 70 suspects instead had to be charged under local laws covering security, firearms, aviation and immigration offences.

No extradition
The men's families' fears that the men would be extradited to Malabo to face coup charges there appeared to be put to rest at the weekend when the government said it would not hand over the men to Equatorial Guinea.

Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi was quoted in The Herald as saying that Zimbabwe had turned down a request by Equatorial Guinea to have the men extradited to the Central African country.

Mann, who has his own lawyer, pleaded guilty to attempting to possess dangerous weapons in Harare, but denied having purchased more than $180 000-worth of firearms illegally.

Armenians maintain innocence
Meanwhile, six Armenian air crew members accused of helping to plot the coup in Equatorial Guinea told a court in Malabo on Thursday that they had nothing to do with the alleged plot.

Samuel Darbinyan (41), a co-pilot of the aircraft leased by a company belonging to Gerhard Eugen Merz of Germany, said he does not know why he has been held in prison since March along with five other Armenian crew members and eight South Africans.

Merz, who was arrested along with the others, died in detention, officially of cerebral malaria, but with rights groups saying he was tortured to death.

All the Armenian crew members, including captain Ashot Kerapetyan, told the court that they were unaware on what charges they were being held until a few days before hearings began on Monday.

Thatcher extradition sought by government

British intelligence services stepped in to foil an African coup plot which Sir Mark Thatcher has been accused of helping to finance, according to sources close to the affair.

Simon Mann, a former SAS officer, was convicted in Zimbabwe last week on arms charges connected to a failed coup in the oil-rich West African state of Equatorial Guinea last March. More than a dozen alleged mercenaries are on trial for their lives in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's capital, accused of being the advance guard for Mr Mann and his colleagues. But it was the arrest of Baroness Thatcher's son in South Africa last week that drew worldwide attention to the plot.

Sir Mark, who is on bail of £165,000, is expected to face two charges under South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act, which is intended to prevent the country being a base for mercenary activity across the continent. The South African intelligence service has announced publicly that it infiltrated the alleged plot, but The Independent on Sunday has learnt that British agencies were also monitoring preparations. Several figures in Britain have been accused of helping to organise and finance the attempted coup.

The US, whose oil giants have large contracts with the tiny West African state, was also said to be aware of the alleged conspiracy to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, and replace him with an opposition figure said to have been backed by foreign financiers who would have been rewarded with oil concessions and other deals. Sources close to the Obiang regime have accused the former Spanish government of Jose Maria Aznar of complicity in the plot.

"Britain co-operated with South Africa in gathering information about the planned coup and helped to put a stop to it, but its intelligence agencies are happy to let the South Africans take the credit," said one well-informed source.

The plan collapsed when Mr Mann was arrested in Zimbabwe and a plane carrying 64 alleged mercenaries, most of them former members of South Africa's apartheid-era special forces, was seized at Harare airport. Since Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe frequently accuses Britain of attempting to undermine him, it was convenient for South Africa, which maintains cordial relations with its unstable neighbour, to take the leading role.

Last week Zimbabwe acquitted most of Mr Mann's associates of the arms charges, accepting their claim that they did not know what their mission was to be. But South Africa is considering charging them under its anti-mercenary law on their return, and a spokesman for its elite Scorpions investigations squad said it could seek the extradition of Britons against whom there is significant evidence. Neither South Africa nor Britain is willing to extradite suspects to Equatorial Guinea, which retains the death penalty. But a Home Office spokeswoman said that Britain had full extradition relations with South Africa: "Requests for the extradition of British nationals would be considered. The UK always stands ready to fulfil its international obligations."

One of Sir Mark Thatcher's key business partners has turned 'state witness' and is alleged to have given dramatic new evidence to South African police investigating Thatcher's role in the alleged coup to overthrow the President of Equatorial Guinea.

The revelation comes as speculation mounts over what British and US officials knew about the alleged plot and when. Insiders claim that officials in both countries were aware of a planned attempt to topple the leader of the oil-rich west African state, although both governments have denied this claim.

Thatcher's business partner, former crack mercenary pilot Crause Steyl, is believed to have handed over details of Thatcher's investment in an aviation firm that had contracts with Simon Mann, the old Etonian and former SAS officer in jail in Zimbabwe.

The former Prime Minister's son was arrested in Cape Town last week over accusations that he helped finance the alleged coup that aimed to overthrow President Obiang and replace him with the exiled Opposition leader Severo Moto.

The Observer, which first revealed details of Thatcher's alleged involvement in the coup last month, has been told by South African sources that Steyl accompanied Moto to the Canary Islands on the eve of the day the alleged putsch was to happen.

They were flown from Madrid to the islands in a South African-registered King Air 200 by a stunt pilot and landed in the morning of 7 March. The plane is then reported to have flown on to the Malian capital of Bamako where Moto awaited news from the mercenary leaders. The next day, the Boeing 727 carrying Mann and his crew of more than 60 mercenaries was impounded in Harare and those on board arrested.


Steyl's evidence could be highly damaging to Thatcher, who faces 15 years in jail after being charged last week with helping to finance the mercenary plot to topple the President. The government of Equatorial Guinea is requesting an interview with Thatcher in South Africa and is hoping to having him extradited to face trial there.

Thatcher's defence team in Cape Town - which insists he is innocent of all charges - believes Steyl is emerging as central to the prosecution and say they have been told to stay away from him. The lawyers suspect that Steyl has given the South African police a detailed affidavit containing several statements. Steyl was unavailable for comment.

The Observer has obtained details of the contract signed by Steyl and Mann on 16 January to provide aircraft and aviation services. Steyl is alleged to have persuaded Thatcher to invest $250,000 (£139, 586) in a joint venture between a company called Triple A and Mann's Guernsey firm Logo Ltd to provide aircraft and aviation services.

Thatcher's friends insist the investment was a 'peripheral one' in a flying doctor service and that the initials Triple A stand for Air Ambulance Africa. Similar cover stories have been used in mercenary operations, South African intelligence sources say, but Thatcher's friends say that his relationship with Steyl may be 'exaggerated and misinterpreted'.

Mann's associates say he relied increasingly on Steyl's experience in running air operations as plans for the coup plot played out this year. The two first met when Mann established Executive Outcomes in South Africa in the early Nineties and won a contract to run military operations in support of the Angolan government's operations against Unita rebels.

Steyl worked on several other private military operations such as the Executive Outcomes contract in Sierra Leone. It was Steyl and another former mercenary who arranged the leasing from US Dodson Aviation of the Boeing 727-100 which was seized in Zimbabwe with 70 former South African soldiers on board last 7 March. Steyl's brother Neil was piloting it, and has been held in Harare since March.

One of Steyl's associates suggested that it was concern for his brother's fate that prompted Crause Steyl to start co-operating with the Zimbabwean and South African investigations.

As further details emerge of the extraordinary coup plot, speculation is mounting over the role played by western intelligence agencies in the alleged plot to oust Obiang. An individual intimately involved in the alleged coup has claimed that British officials were aware of the plot to replace Obiang with Moto.

South African sources claim the rumours of the coup were circulating among diplomatic circles in Pretoria ear lier this year - although the Foreign Office denies any 'prior knowledge'.

The allegation that British officials knew about the potential illegal coup comes amid claims from British and Spanish intelligence agencies that French spies helped to scupper the plot.

A South African arms dealer held in Equatorial Guinea for his part in an alleged plot to overthrow the President of the oil-rich state will learn today if he is to be executed.

In an interview published yesterday, Nick du Toit claimed he had talked with Sir Mark Thatcher about buying two military helicopters.

Baroness Thatcher's son and other Britons are accused of plotting with mercenaries and arms dealers to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea in March. They are accused of planning to install an opposition figure, now in exile in Spain, in his place, according to the government and Mr Du Toit. Sir Mark was charged last week in South Africa with financing the enterprise.

Mr Du Toit, speaking from prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, told The Mail on Sunday he was introduced to Sir Mark by Simon Mann, another arms dealer. Mann, a former SAS officer, was convicted in Zimbabwe last week of attempting to buy arms for the coup. The former Etonian pleaded guilty to trying to obtain weapons.

"I met him [Sir Mark] about four times over the past seven years. The arms dealer world is small and we all know each other. Simon told me he was one of us.

"I had talks with Thatcher about 18 months ago when he wanted to buy two military helicopters for the logistic support for a gold mine he said he owns in Sudan. I had helicopters under repair in Zambia and invited them to go there and inspect them. In the end, we didn't do a deal ­ that often happens in my business ­ but Thatcher talked to me at length about arms and protection practices in Africa."

Mr Du Toit said he never discussed the coup plot with Sir Mark, but admitted he had met others at Johannesburg airport in South Africa last July, the same time as the overthrow plan was being discussed.

Mr Du Toit, a former member of South Africa's special forces, said his role in the plot would have been to set up roadblocks and enable the main body of mercenaries to get to the presidential palace. His reward, he said, was to be $1m (£560,000) and a job as head of the newly installed presidential guard

But he said he received a call from Mann telling him the coup was off while he was stationed with his men in vehicles at Malabo airport waiting for weapons to arrive. The day after the coup was cancelled, President Obiang arrested all foreigners and confiscated their passports.

Mr Du Toit is among 14 men currently on trial in Malabo for the attempted coup. "We've been abandoned by all the big players behind the coup plot," he said.

"I've worked on missions before on a need to know where all the funds have come from or who is involved. But there's always an understanding that if trouble happens they will find lawyers and other help. We're in terrible trouble and that help isn't coming," he said.

President Obiang, the ruler of a tiny country that is also one of the largest African producers of oil, said his judges would decide the plotters' fate. "But if I were to be the judge, I would apply the maximum penalty ­ execution by firing squad," he said.

The Equatorial Guinea prosecutors have asked South Africa for permission to question Sir Mark, who denies any part in the alleged conspiracy. He has been released on 2m rand (£165,000) bail and has been banned from leaving Cape Town.

Sixty-six men arrested with Mann during the alleged coup plot were freed after magistrates in Harare decided the prosecution had failed to prove they had knowingly taken part in a military mission. Two of those men, Harry Carlse and Lourens Horn, now claim they were tortured in prison. Horn said he was stripped naked, beaten and threatened with electrocution during his interrogation. Both claimed they were ill-fed and denied water.

An Equatorial Guinea court Tuesday suspended trial indefinitely in an alleged coup plot in this oil-rich nation, saying it wanted more information on the alleged roles of Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister, and other international financiers.
Attorney General Jose Olo Obono asked for the suspension, saying it was ``in the interest of transparency in light of new information coming out everyday - these new elements like Mark Thatcher's detention and questions about the financing.''
``It is not possible to pass a just sentence under these circumstances,'' he said.
The three-judge tribunal agreed, saying international investigations needed to be finished before the trial could go on.
Thatcher was placed under house arrest in South Africa on Aug. 25 after he posted a $2 million bond. Prosecutors accuse Thatcher and his alleged co-conspirators of scheming to replace Obiang's 25-year-old regime with a puppet government, and South Africa is considering a request by Equatorial Guinea to question him.
Defense attorneys protested the trial's suspension, saying that under Equatorial Guinea law it could mean up to five-year's pretrial detention for the 19 accused mercenaries who have already been subjected to six months imprisonment and alleged torture here.
Authorities say they foiled the alleged plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang in early March, as dozens of suspected mercenaries allegedly prepared at airports in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea into launch the coup plot.
A total of 88 men are now detained in Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe and South Africa in the case. Two others were released after their acquittal Friday in Zimbabwe. They returned to South Africa on Saturday saying they had been tortured.
A 91st accused, a German, died in custody here after what Amnesty International said was torture. Equatorial Guinea's government is routinely accused by the U.S. State Department and others of torture and other rights abuses.
Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, says he is innocent and will cooperate with investigators, his lawyer has said. His wife, Diane, arrived in London on Tuesday from Johannesburg with their son, 15, and daughter, 11. She is flying to Texas with the children to take them to school and then returning to South Africa, a family spokesman said.

'We guarantee we won't apply death penalty - so let us extradite Thatcher'
Equatorial Guinea demands handover of former PM's son
By Raymond Whitaker in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
05 September 2004


Equatorial Guinea is willing to guarantee that it would not use the death penalty if it were allowed to extradite Sir Mark Thatcher and other British citizens it accuses of involvement in a coup plot, the country's Attorney-General, Jose Olo Obono, has told The Independent on Sunday.

Sir Mark, freed from house arrest in Cape Town on Friday after his mother, Baroness Thatcher, put up £165,000 bail money, is being investigated under South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act for his alleged part in financing a botched coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema's regime in March. Equatorial Guinea officials are due to arrive in South Africa today, and may be allowed to question him, but the west African nation wants Sir Mark and other Britons, including Simon Mann, an ex-SAS officer facing sentence in Zimbabwe on arms charges, Greg Wales, a British businessman, and Ely Calil, a London-based oil trader accused of masterminding the plot, to face its own justice.

Sir Mark's alleged fellow conspirators have far more reason to fear a request for them to face charges there. Apart from President Obiang's dismal human rights record, British and South African law prevents extradition to countries that have capital punishment, and Mr Obono has demanded the death sentence for Nick du Toit, one of eight South Africans on trial in Malabo on charges of abetting the coup attempt.

But in his tiled office in the capital's Spanish colonial-era presidential compound, the Attorney-General said: "South Africa would simply try them [the British residents] in connection with illegal arms trading. We accuse them of crimes against the life of our head of state, of compromising the peace and independence of our country. We have a better claim. If we give an undertaking to the British Government that they will not be executed, then Britain should be willing to extradite them here."

He dismissed allegations that some of the accused in Malabo had been tortured, saying: "At this stage they will say anything to get sympathy. Their defence counsel are free to say what they want, but they have not raised the matter." Amnesty International says, however, that a German suspect who died soon after his arrest was tortured, and defence lawyers have complained of intimidation and lack of access to their clients. The trial was suspended for a month last week to allow fresh evidence about the abortive coup to emerge from proceedings abroad, and Mr Obono said it could be delayed further. But President Obiang left little doubt about the outcome when he said: "It is up to the court to decide what condemnation they will set."

Previous coup attempts against the President, who overthrew and executed his uncle in 1979, were small, domestic affairs. Few paid attention to events in Malabo, which, according to a whitewashed obelisk at the harbour, was originally named Santa Isabel in 1843 by its founder, the commander of the Spanish vessel Nervion.

But Equatorial Guinea has become sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil exporter since offshore fields were discovered in the mid-1990s, raising the stakes. International involvement in the latest plot, which collapsed when Zimbabwe intercepted a planeload of South African former special forces soldiers in March, has kept tensions high in Malabo. A large number of foreigners were expelled from the country immediately afterwards, and those remaining are treated with suspicion and hostility. A force of Moroccan bodyguards surrounds President Obiang wherever he goes, but there are rumours that his health is failing, and that another coup attempt may not be long delayed.

According to a High Court action in London launched by Equatorial Guinea, the aim of the plotters was to replace the president with Severo Moto, an opposition politician exiled in Spain. Mr Obiang's government has accused the former Spanish government of Jose Maria Aznar of complicity, and according to Mr Obono, Britain and the US were "fully aware" of the intended coup. "We received warnings from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Angola, but nothing from Britain or America," he said. "There are indications that they, like Spain, were prepared to recognise a Severo Moto government."

Former British special forces soldier Simon Mann, who allegedly led a foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison for trying to buy weapons from Zimbabwe's state arms manufacturer.

Two flight crew members were sentenced to 16 months in prison and 66 other mercenary suspects received 12-month jail terms on minor immigration and aviation charges.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe handed down the sentence for Mann, 51, in the makeshift courthouse inside the Chikurubi maximum security prison near Harare.

The men have been detained at the prison since their arrest March 7 at the Harare International Airport.

At earlier hearings, Mann admitted trying to order assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from the Zimbabwe Defense Industries - an offence punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Mann showed no emotion during sentencing.

Dear Sir,

My name is Sir Mark Thatcher, I have been under-house arrest for somedays, I want us to do a deal together, I was accused of bankrolling an alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, from house arrest at my Constantia home. This has involved a large sum of amount which is already lodge in a security vault, which will be disclose to you in further mails to you. the amount that I secretly lodge is $25,000,000.00

I want you to know that this deal is going to cost us money to carry out, I am ready to share with you 50% each.

Remember, that I cannot make any phone calls, the only access I have is the internet.

I wait to hear from you ASAP.

Best regards,

Sir Mark Thatcher.

NB: please send your response to [email protected]