Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has agreed to post bail of 350 000 pounds (about R4,1-million) to free her son Mark from house arrest in South Africa, The Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Mark Thatcher, a 51-year-old businessman, was arrested in Cape Town a week ago on suspicion of helping to finance an alleged coup bid in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. He denies the allegation.
The Times said Baroness Thatcher (78) had agreed to help her son after a telephone conversation on her return to Britain from a holiday in the United States on August 27.
”The money will be paid within 36 hours,” it said.
Baroness Thatcher, known as the Iron Lady when her Conservative Party were in power in the 1980s, has made no public comment on her son’s situation.
Mark Thatcher was arrested and charged on August 25 with contributing $275 000 to the alleged plan to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who himself seized power 25 years ago in a coup.
He has been charged under South Africa’s law barring mercenary activity and faces a fine or jail term if convicted.
Thatcher’s United States-born wife Diane (45) made a stopover in London on Tuesday en route to Dallas, Texas, to put their two children in schools in the US, a family spokesperson said. – Sapa-AFP