EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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12jan05
Mark Thatcher to plead guilty to coup charges in South African court: source.
Mark Thatcher, the son of British former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, will plead guilty to charges of bankrolling an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea in a Cape Town court in a plea bargain with the state, a source close to him said.
"I believe that he will plead guilty and pay a fine for contravening Section Two of the Foreign Military Assistance Act," the source told AFP late Wednesday, referring to South Africa's anti-mercenary law.
"The deal was proposed by the state two months ago to Mark Thatcher. He gets off with a fine and he becomes a free man and he can go back to see his wife in America."
The office of public prosecutions earlier said the British businessman would make an unexpected court appearance in Cape Town on Thursday on charges of breaching South Africa's anti-mercenary laws.
"We are going to court tomorrow (Thursday) at 10:00 am (0800GMT) in the Cape Town High Court," public prosecutions spokesman Sipho Ngwema told AFP.
Asked to confirm reports that he would plead guilty, Ngwema replied: "I'm not saying anything further. I'm not entertaining any speculation."
Thatcher's trial was originally scheduled to start in April.
Thatcher was arrested on August 25 last year at his Cape Town villa in South Africa on charges of contributing 275,000 dollars to help finance the suspected plot to overthrow longtime Equatorial Guinea leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Thatcher paid two million rand (250,000 euros/300,000 dollars) in bail nine days after his arrest and agreed to hand over his passport and report daily to the police.
He allegedly put up the cash to purchase a helicopter that was to fly Equatorial Guinea opposition leader Severo Moto, currently living in exile in Spain, from Mali to Malabo, the capital of the tiny west African country, once Obiang had been deposed.
Britain's Press Association reported that the 51-year-old Briton would agree in court to pay a fine of approximately three million South African rand (roughly 380,000 euros, 505,000 dollars).
If he failed to pay, he could face a five-year jail term, it added.
Thatcher's mother, who visited her son in Cape Town for Christmas, said through a spokesman in London she was "very relieved" to hear of the deal.
"She is very relieved that matters have now been settled and that the worry of these last few months is now over," the spokesman said.
The Equatorial Guinean government in March announced that it had nabbed in Malabo 15 suspected mercenaries whom it said were the advance party for scores more arrested in the Zimbabwe capital Harare, led by Briton Simon Mann.
Mann, who was sentenced to seven years in prison on weapons charges related to the alleged coup plot, was Thatcher's neighbour in the upscale Cape Town suburb of Constantia.
Equatorial Guinea prosecutors have applied for permission in a South African court to question Thatcher about his alleged role in the plot, but his lawyers appealed the matter which has been postponed to February 18.
[Source: AFP, Cape Town, South Africa, 12Jan05]
 | This document has been published on 23Mar05 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. |