Equatorial Guinea prosecutors confirmed on Thursday they have charged Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, with involvement in an alleged coup plot in the oil-rich West African nation.
Thatcher is accused of having helped finance the coup attempt, Attorney General Jose Olo Obono said. He was on Tuesday added to the existing list of 19 other defendants on trial in Malabo, all accused mercenaries.
Equatorial Guinea intends to seek Thatcher’s extradition, a legal official close to the government’s case said earlier this week.
Equatorial Guinea alleges Thatcher and other, mainly British, financiers worked with Equatorial Guinea opposition figures, scores of African mercenaries and six Armenian pilots in a takeover plot in the country.
The coup plotters intended to force out the 25-year regime of President Teodoro Obiang and install an exiled opposition figure as a figurehead leader for Africa’s third-largest oil producer, Equatorial Guinea claims.
The alleged plot was exposed in March by South African intelligence services, and scores of accused mercenaries were arrested in Malabo and in Zimbabwe.
Thatcher was arrested in August at his home in South Africa.
South Africa’s own investigation has also just linked Thatcher with the alleged coup plot, South Africa’s News24 reported.
The news website cited documents it said were submitted on Wednesday in Pretoria by the National Prosecuting Authority.
The documents allege meetings between Thatcher, famed British mercenary Simon Mann and British financier Greg Wales, the report said. Thatcher in January made two bank deposits for a helicopter to be used in the coup attempt, South African investigators said, according to News24.
The trial in Equatorial Guinea resumed on Thursday, with the prosecutors’ lead witness formally facing the death penalty after repudiating his alleged confessions in the case in court on Tuesday.
Three other accused mercenaries pleaded guilty in South Africa this week to involvement in the alleged plot and agreed to testify against others in the case.
Execution in Equatorial Guinea is generally by firing squad. — Sapa-AP
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