Thatcher in court for coup case hearing

Sir Mark Thatcher has arrived at a magistrates’ court in South Africa for a hearing on charges that he allegedly helped bankroll a coup attempt that failed in Equatorial Guinea.

The hearings today and tomorrow in Cape Town are on the legality of the government subpoena of Thatcher, a 51-year-old businessman who has lived in South African since 1995. He was arrested in Cape Town on August 25.

Thatcher was subpoenaed in September to appear in Wynberg Magistrates’ Court after the South African government granted an Equatorial Guinea request to question him about the allegations.

Thatcher’s lawyers argued that it was unconstitutional to subpoena him to respond to those questions while he has related South African charges pending.

Equatorial Guinea wants to question a number of prominent Britons about allegations they financed a plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled Africa’s third-largest oil producer for the past 25 years.

Lawyers for Thatcher, the son of former Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher, have maintained his innocence, saying he will co-operate with authorities.

Last month Simon Mann, a former British special forces commander and noted soldier of fortune accused of masterminding the failed coup plot, was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to buy weapons from Zimbabwe’s state arms manufacturer.

Mann’s 67 accused co-conspirators, arrested when their ageing Boeing 727 landed at the Harare International Airport on March 7, received sentences of 12 to 16 months for minor immigration and aviation violations.