Frederick Forsyth wrote it up as The Dogs of War and set it in Malabo: a rag-tag band of mercenaries, recruited by a British elite, tries to seize control of a mineral-rich, African backwater. Now the basic plot is playing out again as a trial unfolds for a group accused of a failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.
Detailing torture and coercion, accused South African mercenaries on Monday repudiated purported confessions taken from them in an alleged coup conspiracy that spanned from Britain to South Africa. "I can show marks," South African Jose Cardoso said, gesturing with his chained hands during his dramatic testimony.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121356">Thatcher’s family slip out of Cape Town</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121326">Scorpions charge ‘mercenaries’ in SA</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121328">Forsyth’s fiction close to the facts</a>
Equatorial Guinea and South Africa are discussing the possibility of extraditing Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, accused of bankrolling a coup plot in Malabo, an official said on Friday. A formal extradition request has not yet been lodged by the Equato-Guinean authorities, said the official.
Six Armenian air crew members accused of helping to plot to oust Equatorial Guinea’s long-time leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema told a court in Malabo on Thursday that they had nothing to do with the alleged plot. They said they were until recently unaware on what charges they were being held.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121156">Verdict expected in Zim 70 trial</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121128">Thatcher was ready to flee SA</a>
The trial of 14 suspected foreign mercenaries, accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, resumed in Malabo on Tuesday when their South African alleged ringleader was cross-examined by defence lawyers. Nick du Toit, who has admitted a limited role in a coup bid in Equatorial Guinea, responded to questions by lawyers.
Mann’s million-dollar promise
The prosecutor in the case of South African alleged mercenary leader Nick du Toit, who has admitted a limited role in a coup bid in Equatorial Guinea, called on Monday for him to be sentenced to death. The South African said he had accepted the job at the request of Simon Mann, the alleged leader of 70 other suspected mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe. He said Mann had promised him a million dollars.
Call for death penalty for SA ‘mercenary’
The prosecutor in the trial of a group of suspected foreign mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea said on Monday he will call for the death penalty for the coup plotters’ alleged leader, South African Nick du Toit. Du Toit and 13 other suspected mercenaries from South Africa and Armenia appeared in court on Monday.
Fourteen alleged mercenaries including eight South Africans will go on trial in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on August 23 charged with an attempted coup in the West African state, Attorney General Jose Olo Obono announced on Friday. The alleged coup was thwarted when 15 men were arrested in Malabo and 70 in Harare.
The government of Equatorial Guinea said on Thursday it will file "criminal and civil suits" against foreign media for their allegedly "tendentious comments" on links between the country’s president and a scandal-plagued United States bank.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119172">The dictator’s Achilles heel</a>
The government of Equatorial Guinea denied on Sunday that its president had an account with a scandal-ridden United States bank which he used for fraudulent purposes. The 165-year-old Riggs bank, which has held accounts for US presidents, has faced allegations that it illegally laundered money for foreign officials.
Equatorial Guinea this week accused Spain of trying to overthrow its government in an alleged plot by foreign mercenaries to kill the president. In an interview with The Guardian, President Teodoro Obiang’s special adviser, Miguel Mifuno, accused Madrid of sending a warship to the country with 500 marines on board.
In the run-up to a possible US-led offensive on Iraq, US oil companies and strategic planners have their sights on another gulf – West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, a booming backwater surpassing Saudi Arabia in oil exports to the United States.
A MAN brandishing a machete and threatening to commit suicide on the anniversary of reggae star Bob Marley’s death was talked out of it by Guinea’s Interior Minister Clemente Engonga Nguema.