KEY POINTS:
Former British SAS officer Simon Mann has told a court that Sir Mark Thatcher was heavily involved in planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea and not simply the "unwitting" participant in the plot that he claimed to be.
Mann, giving evidence in his own defence at the trial in the capital, Malabo, insisted that former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher's son certainly was "not just an investor. He came on board completely and became part of the management team".
The London-based businessman Ely Calil, he said, was "the overall boss" of the mission. Calil has always denied involvement.
The 2004 scheme to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and replace him with Severo Moto Nsa, an opposition leader living in exile in Spain, had the acquiescence of Spain and South Africa, said Mann.
"It became like a military operation because the Spanish and South African Governments were both giving the green light. Their involvement was clandestine and they will never admit it."
A spokesman for Spain's Foreign Ministry denied the claims.
Mann, 55, an Old Etonian heir to a brewery fortune, spoke from the witness box in his prison-issue grey and blue uniform, in a calm voice with his hands clasped behind his back. He had got to know Sir Mark Thatcher, he said, because they were neighbours in Cape Town. He found out Thatcher knew Calil and had been in contact with Moto.
The court heard that Thatcher paid US$300,000 ($395,000) to buy a helicopter to transport Moto from Spain to Equatorial Guinea once Obiang was overthrown.
The opposition leader, Mann told the court, would have been transported to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa and then to Mali. He would have been flown to Malabo when it became clear the coup had succeeded. The plotters, it is alleged, expected to get lucrative contracts once Moto was in power in a country with massive oil reserves.
Mann was arrested in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, with 70 mercenaries on the way to Equatorial Guinea.
An advance party already in Malabo, led by Nick Du Toit, one of Mann's chief lieutenants, was also seized.
Thatcher was arrested at his home in Cape Town and, in January 2005, fined the equivalent of 266,000 ($688,000) and given a four-year suspended jail sentence. He admitted paying the money to Mann, but maintained he was under the impression it was going to be spent on an air ambulance service to help the impoverished of Africa. He now lives in Spain and has refused to comment on the trial in Malabo.
Calil, of Lebanese descent, who made his money out of Nigerian oil deals, had put up US$2 million for the coup, said Mann. The businessman denies any involvement and his associates claim Mann has been forced to make the accusations by the Equatorial Guinea authorities. Mann says Calil misled him into believing that the people of Equatorial Guinea were dissatisfied with Obiang and the country was ripe for a revolution.
In his testimony, Mann presented a scenario of feverish activity and international intrigue as the final touches were applied to the plot. The coup had to be carried out before the Spanish general election on March 14, 2004, said Mann, because there was apprehension among the plotters that the centre-right Government of Jose Maria Aznar would fall and the incoming Administration might not fulfil the promises of diplomatic and military support which had been made.
"Everything was in a big hurry, because we had this date of March 14, the Spanish election, which was coming closer and closer," said Mann. "I had been told by Calil that the Aznar Government had promised diplomatic recognition if Severo Moto took over." He added that the Spanish Government had promised to send a contingent of Guardia Civil and provide logistical support.
Mann claimed that an intelligence contact, Nick Morgan, had asked him to provide Moto's telephone number so that the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, could call the future President of Equatorial Guinea.
The Foreign Ministry in Madrid rejected the allegations. A spokesman said: "We totally deny what Mr Mann says. We did not give the green light to any of this."
South African officials also stated that they had not authorised the enterprise.
Jose Olo Obono, the Equatorial Guinea Attorney-General, said the next step was for his Government to seek the extradition of Thatcher and Calil.
At the start of the trial yesterday, the prosecution asked for a sentence of 32 years for Mann on charges of crimes against the head of state, crimes against the Government and crimes against the peace and independence of the state. The charges carry the death penalty, but Obono explained that waiving capital punishment had been a pre-condition of Mann's extradition from Zimbabwe this year.
Obiang has been in power in Equatorial Guinea since he overthrew his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, in 1979. Under his iron rule the country became one of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producers but few have benefited. Oil revenues are secret. Human rights groups say Obiang is one of the worst abusers of rights in Africa.
- INDEPENDENT
