European commissioner Peter Mandelson on Sunday denied being involved in discussions over the alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea as the Conservatives began to put pressure on the British government over what it knew and when.
”I have never undertaken to deal with it in relation to the British government in any way, shape or form,” Mandelson said in a statement on Sunday.
He went on to deny reports that he faced questioning over the issue. ”There has been no contact from police in Equatorial Guinea or South Africa and nor do I expect there to be any.”
But the new European commissioner and former minister is under pressure to explain his links with Ely Calil, one of the alleged Equatorial Guinea coup plotters, following the decision by the Tory front bench to pursue the issue.
Mandelson, who rented a London flat from Calil five years ago, has repeatedly refused to say when they last met, although he denies ever discussing the plot with him.
Mandelson said on Sunday night: ”I have consistently denied speaking to Mr Calil about this and he has also confirmed that there has not been any discussion between us.”
Mandelson’s acquaintance with Calil, a wealthy Lebanese oil middleman, is a source of embarrassment in his high-profile job as the European Union trade commissioner.
Michael Ancram, the Conservative foreign affairs spokesperson, has put down parliamentary questions to Tony Blair and the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, asking whether any ministers or officials have any discussions with Mandelson about Equatorial Guinea in the past 12 months.
The Tory attack has been compounded by the behaviour of Straw, who has been forced to retract denials to two newspapers that the Foreign Office had any prior intelligence of the coup plot.
Ancram’s suspicions were aroused after reading a report into the failure of the coup based on interviews with some of those allegedly involved. It was written for an oil company by Nigel Morgan, a former Irish Guards officer and mining security consultant living in Cape Town. A former member of the Tory thinktank the Centre for Policy Studies, Morgan is a close friend of both Simon Mann, the coup leader jailed in Zimbabwe, and Mark Thatcher, who faces charges in South Africa of helping to finance the plot.
After interviewing Calil, who claimed he saw Mandelson often, Morgan recorded: ”Calil recently met with Mandelson about the EG/Moto/Mann issue,” referring to the exiled opposition leader Severo Moto and Simon Mann. It goes on: ”Calil says that Mandelson assured him that he would get no problems from the British government side” and invited Calil to come and see him again ”if you need something done”.
The report, now in the hands of the South Africa prosecuting authorities, was first revealed by The Guardian two weeks ago. It showed that the plotters knew South Africa had wind of the plot, which was foiled in early March with the arrest of mercenaries in Zimababwe and Equatorial Guinea.
While Calil has remained silent about its claims of his involvement, Mandelson has repeatedly and vehemently denied having a meeting of that nature.
But the Conservatives have now seized on the issue to promote suggestions of a cover-up after Straw acknowledged that his officials had information about the plot at the end of January. This has been strengthened by complaints from the Obiang regime in Equatorial Guinea that Britian is not doing enough to bring to justice the plot’s British-based participants. – Guardian Unlimited Â