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Mann's MI6 connection
19/09/2004 21:33 - (SA)
London - A close relative of a former head of MI6 has emerged as having business links with Simon Mann, the former SAS officer involved in the plot to overthrow the head of an oil-rich African state.
According to the British Sunday Times Justin Longley, which was a friend and associate of Mann, is the nephew of Sir Richard Dearlove, who was chief of MI6 at the time while the coup was being plotted.
The newspaper reports that Longley was working closely with Mann on goldmining, forestry and engineering ventures in Africa.
He visited the continent as a representative of Logo Logistics, the company through which Mann later financed the attempt in March to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea.
One mining venture in Sudan also involved Sir Mark Thatcher, who was arrested last month by South African police and accused of being among the backers of the coup.
The Sunday Times claims that it has seen documents which show Longley and Mann were corresponding on ventures in Sudan, the DRC, Gabon and Angola.
Longley accompanied Mann on a trip to Sudan in December 2002 to inspect a mining and forestry area that could have yielded millions of pounds worth of gold and teak.
A report of the visit identified Mann as ?CEO of Logo while Justin Longley is a senior project manager?.
Mining ventures
Longley was connected with several business ventures that the British department of foreign affairs was aware of or intervened in.
He worked with Mann at DiamondWorks, an Angola-based diamond mining enterprise, in the 1990s.
The company had links through investors to Sandline International, the private military company that supplied arms to unseat a group of rebels who had seized power in Sierra Leone. Apparently the British foreign fffice knew in advance of the operation.
Longley also worked as a manager for Oryx Natural Resources, the mining concern that had controversial links to President Robert Mugabe.
Longley now works with a relative of Mann for a technical services company based in Brighton, East Sussex. Last week he declined to comment in detail on his relationship with Mann.
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