EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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04Jan05
Thatcher Tested Coup Helicopter - Claim.
The case against Sir Mark Thatcher has gained ground with the claim in plea-bargain papers that he tested a helicopter knowing it would be used in the planned Equatorial Guinea coup.
He was arrested on August 25 on charges of contributing R1,46m to finance a plot to overthrow Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang, and th e new evidence raise s the stakes ahead of his April hearing.
The new allegations come from pilot Crause Steyl, who pleaded guilty under a plea-bargain deal to his role in the coup attempt in November under the Foreign Military Assistance Act.
Steyl, now assisting the Scorpions investigative unit, has confirmed that he held three previously undisclosed meetings with Thatcher starting in December 2003, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
He is alleged to have been introduced to Thatcher, also a pilot, in December 2003 at Lanseria Airport, where it was said that he "would finance the helicopter for Equatorial Guinea".
Steyl is said to have later met Thatcher in Cape Town, when the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher tested one of the helicopters to be used in the coup attempt.
At the plea-bargain hearing in November, the court heard Steyl was supposed to fly exiled opposition leader Severo Moto to Equatorial Guinea from Spain to take Obiang's place after the coup.
Steyl was also supposed to have supplied the plotters with "men" and air assistance, the court heard. Thatcher's lawyers have repeatedly protested that their client was not part of any coup plot, saying that the money was for an air ambulance business in west Africa.
Setting the stage for what could be a heated trial, Thatcher's lawyers denied Steyl's accusations and said he had a "vivid imagination".
However, Thatcher is facing mounting evidence.
Steyl's evidence provides a number of other details implicating him in the plot, while two other coup plotters, Harry Carlse and Lourens Horn, are also expected to give evidence as part of separate plea-bargain deals.
Several of the supposed plotters are in jail.
The leader of the botched coup, former British Special Air Service officer Simon Mann, was sentenced last year to seven years in prison in Zimbabwe for trying to buy weapons from that country's state arms manufacturer.
Co-conspirator Nick du Toit was given a 34-year sentence in Equatorial Guinea after initially admitting guilt, and then retracting his plea, saying he had been tortured into confessing.
As the evidence unfolds, more links with top international businesspeople are being unveiled.
Lebanese oil tycoon Eli Calil, who lives in Britain, is supposed to have contributed R4,5m to the alleged plot.
Other names such British politician Lord Jeffrey Archer, who has served a prison sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice, have been mentioned as possible financiers of the alleged plot.
[Source: Business Day, Johannesburg, South Africa, 04Jan05]
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