As politicians and observers debate the ongoing trial in Equatorial Guinea, with all the unfolding revelations, it has emerged that Sir Mark Thatcher, son of Britain’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is to be extradited, having been dramatically named in the court in Malabo as one of the key architects of a plot to seize control of an oil-rich African state.
While testifying in public for the first time since the coup attempt was thwarted in 2004, Old Etonian Simon Mann, the conspirator, said Sir Mark should be alongside him in the dock in the country’s capital, Malabo.
Now authorities in Malabo say they plan to seek the extradition of the former Premier’s son.
Mann, former SAS officer, who is on trial alongside other accused, said Sir Thatcher was part of a four-man ’board of management’ behind the plan to grab power in Equatorial Guinea in 2004.
Also during Wednesday’s session, Mann, the son of an England cricket captain, told the three-man panel of judges that the plot had been approved by the Spanish and South African governments and the CIA in the U.S.
Jack Straw, the then Foreign Secretary, has already confirmed in UK parliament that Britain “was aware of the coup attemptâ€.
Mann further named Eli Calil, a UK-based Lebanese billionaire who made his fortune from oil and mineral deals in Nigeria, as another man behind the coup plot.
In 2004 Sir Mark was accused of involvement in the plot under South Africa’s tough anti-mercenary laws.
Speaking after Wednesday’s hearing, Equatorial Guinea’s public prosecutor, Jose Olo Obono, said the next step would be to seek the extradition of Sir Mark and Calil.
Mann said Calil told him the coup plotters had been promised immediate diplomatic recognition by the center-Right Spanish government of Jose Maria Aznar if they succeeded in replacing Obiang with opposition leader Severo Moto.
Spain had also promised to send a contingent of Civil Guards.
Mann said the plotters had rushed to try to carry out the coup before March 14, 2004, the date of a Spanish general election which they feared Aznar would lose – as he did.
“Everything was in a big hurry,’ he added.
Mann was originally facing the death penalty, but this was commuted to a term in jail at the start of the trial.
Towards the end of Wednesday’s session of the trial, Mann was asked by prosecutors whether he accepted that he would have to serve 32 years in the notorious Black Beach prison, where torture and abuse are rife.
In a rare show of emotion, he exclaimed: ’No! I don’t accept that. Please!’
Source African Press Agency
