EQUIPO NIZKOR |
|
14Oct04
Equatorial Guinea: 'Britain is doing nothing'.
Britain's security services have been accused by officials from Equatorial Guinea of failing to investigate British businessmen linked to a failed coup in the oil-rich central African country, The Times newspaper said on Wednesday.
A delegation from Equatorial Guinea was in London on Tuesday claiming that eight British-based businessmen, including disgraced former Conservative politician Lord Jeffrey Archer, bankrolled the botched coup, it said.
Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister, was arrested in Cape Town on August 25 under suspicion of bankrolling the alleged attempt to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea for 25 years.
"This was a conspiracy to murder a president, overthrow a legitimate government and surely falls under the definition of terrorism and yet nothing has been done about it here," said a senior Equatorial Guinean official quoted in The Times.
Mann in prison.
"This coup attempt was in large part financed from Britain," said the unnamed source.
"We were given undertakings that the British-based suspects would be investigated here but nothing has been done," the source told the newspaper.
The trial in Malabo of 19 men on coup charges was suspended on August 31 to allow the Equatorial Guinea prosecution to question Thatcher, a process now due to take place on November 26 after a two-month postponement.
Thatcher's friend and neighbour in the Cape Town suburb of Constantia, Briton Simon Mann, was sentenced to seven years in jail in Zimbabwe on September 10 for attempting to buy weapons that Harare alleges were to be used in the coup.
Sixty-seven other suspected mercenaries were sentenced to 12 and 16 months in jail for violating immigration laws when their plane stopped over in Harare on March 7 to pick up the consignment of weapons.
The detainees in Malabo are accused of being the advance party for the Harare group of suspected mercenaries who were allegedly recruited by Mann.
[Source: Agence France Press, London, 14Oct04]
 | This document has been published on 21Nov04 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |