South Africa is considering a request by Equatorial Guinea to question Mark Thatcher about his alleged involvement in a foiled coup plot in the oil-rich west African nation, a spokesperson for the Justice Department said on Monday.
Thatcher, the 51-year-old son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, is under house arrest at his luxury Cape Town home on charges that he helped fund the purchase of a helicopter to be used in the alleged coup. He denies any involvement and has until September 8 to post R2-million bail.
South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs received Equatorial Guinea’s request to question Thatcher on Friday and conveyed it to the Justice Department on Monday, ministry spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said.
”We are still looking at intergovernmental relations between our two countries to see if the request complies,” Kganyago said. ”We can’t say how long this will take.”
Equatorial Guinea says it has already requested an international arrest warrant for Thatcher and other Britons accused of contracting with a Spanish-based opposition leader and international mercenaries to finance a plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, whose nation of 500 000 has become Africa’s number three oil producer.
Thatcher’s legal counsel, Philip Higgo, said last week that his client was cooperating with South African authorities and would also be willing to answer questions from Equatorial Guinea officials.
Thatcher’s wife, Diane, and their two children drove to the airport Monday to catch a flight out of the country.
They refused to say where they were going as police and two private security guards whisked them past journalists at the international departures lounge. But airline staff said the only flight departing at that time was to London.
South African investigators said last week that Thatcher had booked them flights to Dallas before he was arrested, and the children were already enrolled at schools there. His wife is the daughter of a millionaire Texas car dealer.
A total of 88 men are now in custody in South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe connection with the plot allegedly foiled in March. Two others have been released after their acquittal Friday in Zimbabwe.
A 91st accused, a German, died in custody in Equatorial Guinea after what Amnesty International said was torture.
Thatcher, a former race-car driver, has had legal problems before.
He moved to Dallas in April 1984 after a controversy over reports he represented a British construction firm that won a $600-million contract in Oman while his mother was there on a trade-boosting trip in 1981.
While in Texas, he settled a civil racketeering lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. He also faced charges from the Internal Revenue Service over his role with a Dallas-based home security company that went bankrupt.
Thatcher was scrutinised by Britain’s Parliament in 1994 over reports that he was involved in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Iraq while his mother was prime minister. He moved his family to South Africa in 1995 after business troubles in the United States. – Sapa-AP