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News24 , South Africa
Aug 25 2004
Thatcher 'bankrolled' coup
Johannesburg - The son of former British prime minister Margaret
Thatcher, Mark Thatcher, was arrested in Cape Town on Wednesday for
allegedly bankrolling a coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a
spokesman for South African investigators said.
Thatcher was arrested at his home in the Cape Town suburb of
Constantia for violating the Foreign Military Assistance Act which
bans mercenary activities, said Sipho Ngwema, spokesperson for the
Scorpions elite investigating unit.
"We have the warrant of arrest and we are busy searching for the
documents that could implicate Thatcher on his involvement in an
attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea," Ngwema said.
"We believe that he was responsible for financing the coup attempt in
Equatorial Guinea," said Ngwema.
The arrest came as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was due to
arrive in Cape Town, leading the biggest delegation ever to South
Africa for two days of talks aimed at putting relations with Pretoria
on a stronger footing.
Thatcher, who lives with his Texan wife and two children in Cape
Town, was due to appear in a Cape Town court later Wednesday, the
spokesman said.
He has been linked to one of the alleged masterminds of the coup
plot, Simon Mann, who is on trial in Zimbabwe in connection with the
attempt to topple veteran President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Malabo.
Mann and 69 other men were arrested in Harare in March over the
alleged plot at about the same time as 14 other suspected foreign
mercenaries were detained in Malabo, accused of being the advance
party for the operation.
Friends with Mann
The 14, South Africans and Armenians, as well as four nationals from
Equatorial Guinea, have been on trial in Malabo since Monday for the
alleged coup plot.
Thatcher, in an interview to a British daily last month, admitted
that he was friends with Mann, who allegedly smuggled a letter out of
his Harare cell requesting help from "Scratcher", which was said to
be code for Thatcher.
"Nothing that I could say would improve the situation," Thatcher was
quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph. "All his friends, of which I
am one, are acutely aware that he is still incarcerated and care must
be taken not to inflame the situation."
In a recent interview to a French magazine Jeune Afrique
l'Intelligent, Obiang accused Thatcher and a former minister in his
mother's government of complicity in the attempted coup.
"Certain elements also indicate that Mark Thatcher and a former
Thatcher cabinet minister, who I cannot name, handled the financial
planning of the coup," he said.
Obiang also accused a Britain-based Lebanese oil tycoon and
Equatorial Guinean opposition leader Severo Moto, who lives in exile
in Spain - the country's former colonial ruler - of being involved in
the alleged putsch.
Edited by Tisha Steyn
Aug 25 2004
Thatcher 'bankrolled' coup
Johannesburg - The son of former British prime minister Margaret
Thatcher, Mark Thatcher, was arrested in Cape Town on Wednesday for
allegedly bankrolling a coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a
spokesman for South African investigators said.
Thatcher was arrested at his home in the Cape Town suburb of
Constantia for violating the Foreign Military Assistance Act which
bans mercenary activities, said Sipho Ngwema, spokesperson for the
Scorpions elite investigating unit.
"We have the warrant of arrest and we are busy searching for the
documents that could implicate Thatcher on his involvement in an
attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea," Ngwema said.
"We believe that he was responsible for financing the coup attempt in
Equatorial Guinea," said Ngwema.
The arrest came as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was due to
arrive in Cape Town, leading the biggest delegation ever to South
Africa for two days of talks aimed at putting relations with Pretoria
on a stronger footing.
Thatcher, who lives with his Texan wife and two children in Cape
Town, was due to appear in a Cape Town court later Wednesday, the
spokesman said.
He has been linked to one of the alleged masterminds of the coup
plot, Simon Mann, who is on trial in Zimbabwe in connection with the
attempt to topple veteran President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Malabo.
Mann and 69 other men were arrested in Harare in March over the
alleged plot at about the same time as 14 other suspected foreign
mercenaries were detained in Malabo, accused of being the advance
party for the operation.
Friends with Mann
The 14, South Africans and Armenians, as well as four nationals from
Equatorial Guinea, have been on trial in Malabo since Monday for the
alleged coup plot.
Thatcher, in an interview to a British daily last month, admitted
that he was friends with Mann, who allegedly smuggled a letter out of
his Harare cell requesting help from "Scratcher", which was said to
be code for Thatcher.
"Nothing that I could say would improve the situation," Thatcher was
quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph. "All his friends, of which I
am one, are acutely aware that he is still incarcerated and care must
be taken not to inflame the situation."
In a recent interview to a French magazine Jeune Afrique
l'Intelligent, Obiang accused Thatcher and a former minister in his
mother's government of complicity in the attempted coup.
"Certain elements also indicate that Mark Thatcher and a former
Thatcher cabinet minister, who I cannot name, handled the financial
planning of the coup," he said.
Obiang also accused a Britain-based Lebanese oil tycoon and
Equatorial Guinean opposition leader Severo Moto, who lives in exile
in Spain - the country's former colonial ruler - of being involved in
the alleged putsch.
Edited by Tisha Steyn