British mercenary Simon Mann goes on trial Tuesday in Equatorial Guinea for allegedly plotting to oust the oil-rich country’s iron-fisted ruler — a charge that could carry the death penalty.
Other well-connected Britons such as Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and London-based millionaire businessman Ely Calil, have been linked to the failed coup bid.
Mann — the heir to a brewing fortune who was educated at Eton and served in Britain’s Special Air Services (SAS) after training at prestigious British military academy Sandhurst — was secretly extradited to Equatorial Guinea this year from Zimbabwe.
The 55-year-old had been arrested in 2004 at Harare’s international airport with 61 alleged accomplices when their plane touched down en route to Equatorial Guinea.
The authorities there accused them of trying to pick up arms before teaming up with a team led by a South African, Nick du Toit, to launch a coup against Equatorial Guinea President Teodor Obiang Nguema.
Du Toit has since been jailed for 34 years in Equatorial Guinea.
Death sentence
Legal sources in Equatorial Guinea said that, if convicted, Mann could face a death sentence — still applied in exceptional cases in the Central African nation. However, prosecutors are more likely to seek a lengthy prison term of up to 30 years.
In the 1990s, Man had set up a security consultancy called Executive Outcomes to protect businesses in conflict zones and allegedly earned millions from Angola, one of Africa’s top oil producers, to guard oil installations against rebel attacks.
He also set up another private security firm, Sandline International, which was soon being linked to a 10-year civil war in the Central African country of Sierra Leone, one of the most brutal conflicts in modern history.
In an interview with Britain’s Channel 4 News from his prison cell in Malabo, Mann acknowledged having been involved in the coup plot but said that he had not been the mastermind.
He accused Spain and South Africa, and named Calil as having been involved.
Equatorial Guinea has also issued an international arrest warrant for Mark Thatcher, accusing him of having been one of those behind the plot.
President Obiang, who is accused by critics of stifling democracy and trampling on human rights and of frittering away the country’s new-found oil riches with his family members and aides, has said he will not seek vengeance.
Obiang told Channel 4 the trial was not ”an act of revenge”.
The country’s Attorney General, Jose Olo Obono, said that ”the court will prove that there was an attempted coup masterminded by Simon Mann and other businessmen, including Ely Calil”.
Equatorial Guinea Minister Fortunato Ofa Mbo, the Secretary General to the Government Presidency, is also facing trial for allegedly keeping secret the information he had on a businessman’s bid to destabilise the country.
Ofa Mbo, who at the time was the fisheries minister, had allegedly helped Calil.
President Obiang has ruled the country since he overthrew his own uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, in 1979.
In last month’s parliamentary election, the president’s ruling party and his allies obtained 99 of 100 seats in elections, according to the official results. — AFP
