Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, said on Sunday he has been denied a visa to rejoin his family in the United States, calling it a result of his guilty plea involving a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
”It is quite true that my visa application has been rejected,” he said in a statement read by his spokesperson. ”It was always a calculated risk when I plea-bargained in South Africa.”
Thatcher (51) pleaded guilty in January to violating anti-mercenary laws in South Africa, saying he had unwittingly helped men who had plotted to stage a coup in the West African country of Equatorial Guinea.
He paid a R3-million fine and was given a four-year suspended prison sentence.
Last month, Thatcher was also forced to answer questions submitted by Equatorial Guinea prosecutors in a South African court about the alleged March 2003 plot to topple Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the long-time leader of the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.
His two children and Texan-born wife Diane have been in the US for the past few months, while Thatcher has been staying with his mother in London following his plea bargain in Cape Town.
He said the rejection by US visa authorities — for reasons he did not explain — means that his family will instead relocate to Europe.
”As a result of this decision, I shall make the family home in Europe, not the United Kingdom, and my family will be joining me as soon as arrangements are made,” he said. ”But the children will continue to be educated in America.”
The Thatcher children — Michael (15) and Amanda (11) — have been living with their mother in her hometown of Dallas since leaving their Cape Town home amid the scandal.
Thatcher’s spokesperson said in London that he could nevertheless reapply for a US visa after two years.
Obiang, the Equatorial Guinea leader, alleges that Thatcher helped to fund a group of mostly British-based businessmen that sought to overthrow his regime in favour of an opposition leader who would give them access to Africa’s third-largest oil reserves.
The son of the former British prime minister, who is called Sir Mark in Britain because he inherited a baronetcy from his late father, Sir Denis, has denied any knowledge of a coup plot.
But he has acknowledged knowing some of the alleged plotters, including London-based Lebanese businessman Ely Calil and British mercenary Simon Mann, the alleged coup mastermind currently jailed in Zimbabwe. — Sapa-AFP