‘Is it normal to be tortured?’

Detailing torture and coercion, accused South African mercenaries on Monday repudiated purported confessions taken from them in an alleged coup conspiracy that spanned from Britain to South Africa.

“I can show marks,” South African Jose Cardoso said, gesturing with his chained hands during Monday’s dramatic testimony. “I’ve been shocked, my human rights have been violated.”

Monday’s testimony marked the first time that torture has come up in the six-day trial of 19 accused mercenaries in an alleged foiled coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.

The state alleges the plot involves scores of plotters in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea. Prosecutors say they were recruited by Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and other Britons to take control of Africa’s third-largest oil producer.

Monday’s testimony saw all eight South Africans on trial brought before the court in shackles and confronted with confessions they allegedly signed.

Cardoso and others repudiated the documents, saying they are the written statements of interrogators and that their own answers to questions had not been taken down.

“Is it normal for statements to be taken as you’re being taken to the torture room, to be tortured, as I was?” Cardoso asked.

Cardoso said an Equatorial Guinea “officer was present … during the torture session and is present now”, gesturing to the part of the courtroom where security forces sit.

“If I’m lying, you can ask him,” he said. It was not clear exactly whom Cardoso was indicating.

Court officials did not refer afterward to his statements of torture.

Another defendant, George Olympic Nunez, said he signed the statement detailing the alleged coup plot because he was promised his freedom if he did.

The South African said he had been interrogated by a security officer from Zimbabwe, where the alleged coup plot was foiled between March 6 and 8.

Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer who is the only defendant facing the death penalty in the alleged plot, insisted again on Monday that none of those working with him in Equatorial Guinea knew they had been recruited in the alleged takeover attempt.

Eighty-eight men are now detained in Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe and South Africa — where Thatcher is under house arrest — in connection with the case. Two others were released after their acquittal on Friday in Zimbabwe. They returned to South Africa on Saturday, saying they had been tortured.

A 91st accused, a German, died in custody in Malabo after what Amnesty International said was torture.

Equatorial Guinea’s government is routinely accused by the United States State Department and others of torture and other rights abuses. — Sapa-AP