Verdict expected in Thatcher-linked mercenary case

Africa News

Jul 7, 2008, 15:27 GMT

Nairobi/Malabo - A court in Equatorial Guinea was expected to issue a verdict Monday in the case of British mercenary Simon Mann, who is accused of plotting a 2004 coup in which the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was also implicated. Guinea's state-controlled national radio said that the court would announce its verdict late Monday afternoon. Mann, who was extradited from Zimbabwe in January to face trial in the tiny West African nation, has admitted he was involved in the plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, but claims he was not the brains behind it. Prosecutors have asked for 30 years for Mann. During his trial, Mann said that the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was a key organizer of the coup and that Spain and South Africa rubber-stamped it. Sir Mark Thatcher had agreed to provide a helicopter to transport opposition leader Severo Moto, then living in Spain, to Equatorial Guinea to take over from President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Mann claimed. Thatcher, who was fined 500,000 dollars and given a four-year suspended sentence in South Africa in 2005 for his part in the coup, has said he thought he was providing a helicopter for an air ambulance company in West Africa. Mann, a former SAS officer and ex-pupil at Britain's prestigious Eton College, was arrested in Zimbabwe four years ago along with 69 others when they attempted to pick up a shipment of arms and served four years there before being extradited. Many of Mann's co-conspirators are already serving jail sentences. South African arms dealer Nick du Toit is amongst that group, although Amnesty International claimed that the trial convicting him was flawed.

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Verdict expected in Thatcher-linked mercenary case

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