Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on Monday pardoned a suspected mercenary who was among a group of South Africans convicted over an alleged coup plot in 2004, the ministry of foreign affairs said.
Marius Boonzaaier, who is critically ill, will be allowed to return to South Africa later on Monday or on Tuesday after he was granted the pardon on humanitarian grounds, said South African ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
“The government extends our gratitude to the president for this humanitarian gesture,” Mamoepa told Agence France-Presse.
Four South Africans, including alleged ringleader Nick du Toit who was sentenced to 34 years in prison, remain in jail in Malabo after being convicted of attempting to overthrow Obiang, who has been in power in the oil-rich nation since 1979.
The case made headlines worldwide following the arrest in Cape Town in August 2004 of Mark Thatcher, the wealthy son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who allegedly helped bankroll the coup bid.
Thatcher pleaded guilty in a South African court last year to unwittingly helping to finance the alleged coup and was fined about €400 000.
Briton Simon Mann, the alleged mastermind of the coup plot, is serving a four-year jail sentence after he was arrested, along with close to 69 other men, at Harare airport in March 2004.
The men had allegedly stopped over in Harare to pick up weapons en route to Malabo to join the advance team led by Du Toit. — AFP