Arms dealer du Toit gets 34-year sentence for coup attempt

SOUTH African arms dealer Nick du Toit, who has been linked to Mark Thatcher, was jailed for 34 years in Equatorial Guinea yesterday for his part in a failed coup.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for the man they said led an advance team for an internationally-backed plot to overthrow the oil-rich West African nation's president.

Six South Africans and six Armenians were convicted and jailed, while the court in the capital Malabo acquitted three South Africans and three locals.