EG: Du Toit tied to mercenaries

2004-08-26 15:04

Johannesburg - South African Nick du Toit, the alleged ringleader of a group of suspected coup-plotters in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, is said to have strong links with former soldiers and mercenaries active during the apartheid era.

Du Toit, 48, is currently on trial in Malabo on charges of conspiring to topple the longtime leader of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

The state prosecutor has requested the death penalty for Du Toit and prison terms ranging from 26 to 86 years for his 17 co-accused including seven other South Africans.

Du Toit is a former member of the South African army's elite Special Task Forces unit who worked in Executive Outcomes, a mercenary outfit set up by Briton Simon Mann in the early 1990s.

Du Toit was reportedly part of an Executive Outcomes mission in Sierra Leone where mercenaries were hired by the Freetown government to fight against rebels.

Executive Outcomes was forced to close down when the ANC came to power and outlawed mercenary activity.

But it is widely believed that its mercenaries have continued working across the continent.

During its years in operation, Du Toit built strong relations with the South African army's 32 Battalion.

Arrested alongside Du Toit in Equatorial Guinea, are five South Africans of Angolan descent - all of them former members of 32 Battalion.

In Zimbabwe, Mann and 69 other suspected mercenaries - many of them also former Buffalo Battalion soldiers - have been arrested for their role in the alleged plot to overthrow Obiang.

Du Toit has testified in court in Malabo that he had a limited role in the alleged plot - to recruit personnel and take charge of logistics.

All other defendants to have taken the witness stand since the trial opened on Monday have denied any knowledge of a putsch in the making, while Du Toit has disculpated the four accused Equato-Guineans.

Du Toit runs the Triple Option Trading company in Equatorial Guinea, officially an air transport and fishery business but described by some media as a front company for arms and diamond trafficking.

An AFP correspondent in court in Malabo said the South African looked to be in good psychological and physical health, despite having spent six months in Black Beach prison.

Although he sat with his head down and his face hidden by his hands at the start of the trial on Monday, since then Du Toit has held himself upright, and even remained emotionless when the Equato-Guinean attorney general announced he would call for the death penalty for him.

- SAPA