Mbeki apologises to pensioner after jail ordeal

THE British pensioner released from a South African jail after being mistaken for a dangerous fugitive yesterday told how President Thabo Mbeki rang to apologise for his ordeal.

Derek Bond, a 72-year-old Rotarian from Bristol, gave an emotional press conference on arrival at Heathrow Airport yesterday morning, supported by his wife

Audrey. Dressed in a blue check shirt, blue trousers and a green jumper, he told reporters of his harrowing experience.

Mr Bond was arrested three weeks ago on the orders of the FBI, who mistook him for Derek Sykes, a renowned conman, who is also British. After his release the pensioner told how he feared to leave his hotel room and had all his calls screened.

He said: "I was released and had one night in the hotel I still couldn't go out of the bedroom, I couldn't leave the room. "Every time the phone went I had palpitations." Mr Bond said he received one call from the president, which he assumed to be the head of the Clifton Rotary Club of which he is a member. It turned out to be President Mbeki.

Speaking with a voice cracking with emotion, he said: "Mr Mbeki spoke to me for 10 minutes and apologised on behalf of the people of South Africa." Mr Bond said Mr Mbeki asked him to return to South Africa. "He said: 'This isn't our fault, you will come and have tea with me.'"

The real suspect, Derek Sykes, was arrested in Las Vegas last Tuesday and was being transferred to Texas where he faces trial for his alleged involvement in a fraud which cost hundreds of vulnerable people their savings. Mr Bond said that at times he feared he would not make it through his incarceration.