Alleged mercenary leader tells court he met Mark Thatcher

South African authorities arrested the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday in connection with a failed plot to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's president, while the top suspect in the bungled coup was probed about his links to the British businessman in a Malabo court. Nick du Toit, an alleged South African mercenary on trial for plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, told the court in Equatorial Guinea's capital that he was introduced to Mark Thatcher in South Africa in July 2003 by Simon Mann, another key figure in the alleged mercenary plot to invade the Central African country. Shortly before Du Toit spoke, Thatcher was arrested in Capetown by South African police and charged with involvement in the foiled plot to overthrow Obiang. He was later released on bail of US$300,000. Du Toit was the alleged leader of a group of 15 mercenaries that was preparing the ground in Equatorial Guinea last March for the arrival of a planeload of 70 other mercenaries from South Africa. The government says they were planning to oust Obiang and replace him with Severo Moto, an opposition leader who runs a government-in-exile from Madrid. But du Toit and his colleagues were arrested on 6 March and the following day the Zimbabwean government intercepted a chartered jet on a stopover in Harare, which was carrying 70 former South African soldiers, led by Mann. All those on board were arrested. A court source in Malabo told IRIN that in response to prosecution questioning on Wednesday, du Toit admitted having been introduced to Thatcher by Mann. Reuters and AFP, who had correspondents attending the trial, quoted du Toit as telling the court that he met Thatcher to discuss the sale of some helicopters which du Toit owned in Zambia and which Thatcher wanted to use for mining operations in Sudan. Du Toit was a former member of South Africa's special forces during the Apartheid era. He subsequently set up a series of transport, fishing and security businesses in Equatorial Guinea, which are grouped in his holding company Triple Option. He is on trial with 13 other foreigners and four Equatorial Guineans, accused of plotting to overthrow Obiang. The accused include seven other South Africans, some of whom worked for du Toit's businesses in Equatorial Guinea, four Guinean employees of Triple Option and six Armenians. The latter formed the crew of an Antonov 12 cargo plane that ran charter flights in Central Africa. Death penalty? All have been charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government and the illegal possession of arms and ammunition. The court sources said all the defendants faced long jail terms amounting to life imprisonment if found guilty. The state prosecutor has demanded the death penalty for du Toit who is also accused of treason. But President Obiang, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea for the past 25 years, has said publicly that none of those presently on trial would be executed. The trial before a panel of three judges opened at a conference hall in Malabo on Monday. Du Toit has so far done most of the talking under cross-examination by the prosecutor. He has claimed that he was the only defendant who knew about the mercenary invasion plot and was part of it. The court source told IRIN that the trial was expected to conclude on Thursday or Friday and this was confirmed by Amnesty International which sent an observer to attend the proceedings. Amnesty spokesman George Ngwa told IRIN from London that the human rights group was by and large satisfied with the way the trial was being conducted. However, he expressed concern that the South African and Armenian defendants had not been provided with adequate translations. The court proceedings are being conducted in Spanish. Obiang, who came to power by executing his uncle in a 1979 coup, has been widely accused of spending Equatorial Guinea's oil wealth on his own family and friends while leaving the country's 500,000 inhabitants in a state of dire poverty. Last week he took delivery of a new US$50 million Boeing 737 airliner fitted out as an executive jet. Obiang's government has also been widely accused of human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture and the detention without trial of suspected opponents of the regime. A German man who was one of the 15 alleged mercenaries arrested in Equatorial Guinea last March died in detention 11 days later. The government said he died of cerebral malaria. Amnesty quoted eye witnesses who had seen the man's corpse as saying he was tortured to death.