Thatcher 'not just an investor'
2008-06-18 21:27
Malabo - The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a leader of a 2004 coup plot in Equatorial Guinea that was backed by Spain and South Africa, a British mercenary told a court on Wednesday.
Simon Mann, an Eton-educated, former special forces officer, was giving testimony at his trial in Malabo about his role in the failed plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in the small, oil-rich West African nation.
Answering questions from the prosecution, Mann said Mark Thatcher, who has denied knowing about the conspiracy, "was not just an investor".
"He came on board completely and became part of the management team," Mann said, adding that a London-based millionaire, Eli Calil, was "the boss" of the plot.
Calil denies any involvement in the coup plot.
Mann also said the governments of Spain and SA knew about the conspiracy and approved of it going ahead.
Mann, 55, testified on Wednesday that by January 2004, the coup plot had become "like an official operation because the Spanish government and the South African government both gave the green light".
"Their involvement was clandestine and they will never admit it," he told the court.
"We totally deny what Mr Mann says. We did not give the green light to any of this," a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in Madrid.
"I am very, very sorry for what I have done. I am also very happy that we failed ... I think that the people that were seriously involved in this have not faced justice, they should do so," Mann told the court.
Election deadline
Mann said the plotters had rushed to try to carry out the coup before March 14 2004, the date of a general election in Spain which they feared would unseat the centre-right government and deprive them of the Spanish diplomatic backing he said they had been promised.
"Everything was in ... a big hurry, because we had this date, the Spanish election, which was coming closer and closer," Mann said.
Mann said Calil had told him the coup plotters had been promised immediate diplomatic recognition by Aznar's administration if they succeeded in replacing Obiang with Equatorial Guinea opposition figure Severo Moto.
He added that an intelligence contact, Nick Morgan, who liaised with SA's intelligence services, had asked him to provide Moto's telephone number so that SA President Thabo Mbeki could call Moto if the coup succeeded.
The court heard on Tuesday Mark Thatcher was accused of paying the equivalent of $300 000 to be used mainly to purchase a helicopter to transport Moto from exile in Spain to Malabo, once Obiang was overthrown.
Thatcher, who was arrested in 2004 by SA police on suspicion of bankrolling the plot, said he thought he was financing the helicopter for an air ambulance service.
He was released after pleading guilty to breaking SA's anti-mercenary laws and paid a fine.