Thatcher pleads guilty in coup plot

MARK Thatcher pleaded guilty yesterday to unwittingly helping to finance a foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, accepting a $506,000 fine and suspended jail sentence.

The plea deal allows Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to leave South Africa and to rejoin his family in the United States.

Within hours, Thatcher arrived at Cape Town's international airport and was whisked to a VIP section.

Thatcher admitted in the Cape High Court that he paid $275,000 in two installments last year to charter an Alouette III helicopter, which mercenaries planned to use in their botched takeover.

But he said in court documents that he was told it would be used for commercial purposes.

Thatcher acknowledged in the documents that he began to suspect the helicopter would be used for military reasons before he made the payments.

"Although the helicopter was never used in any such mercenary activity, Mark had by then committed an attempt to contravene the provisions of" South Africa's anti-mercenary laws, his lawyer George van Niekerk said in a statement.