Thatcher trial put off until April

Mark Thatcher appeared in court in Cape Town today for the start of his trial on charges of helping to finance a foiled coup attempt in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. The case was immediately postponed until April 8.

Thatcher, the 51-year-old son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was not asked to plead.

South African Prosecutors requested the delay for further investigation.

Magistrate Awie Kotze extended Thatcher’s bail conditions, which require that he remain in the Cape Town area and report daily to police.

Thatcher, who has lived in South Africa since 1995, was arrested at his suburban Cape Town home on August 25 and charged with violating the country’s anti-mercenary laws.

He also faces charges in Equatorial Guinea, where 19 other defendants are already on trial in connection with an alleged plot earlier this year to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled Africa’s third-largest oil producer for the past 25 years.

Officials there have said they will seek Thatcher’s extradition from South Africa.

Yesterday, the Cape High Court ruled Thatcher must answer questions under oath sent by Equatorial Guinea.

Thatcher’s lawyer, Alan Bruce-Brand, said today the legal team had not yet decided whether to appeal. Earlier, he said his client would most likely answer the questions before a magistrate tomorrow.

Equatorial Guinea alleges Thatcher and other, mainly British financiers worked with the tiny country’s opposition figures, scores of African mercenaries and six Armenian pilots in a takeover attempt foiled in March.

Thatcher maintains he played no part in the alleged conspiracy.

Simon Mann, a former British special forces commander accused of organising the failed coup plot, was sentenced to seven years in prison in Zimbabwe for trying to buy weapons from that country’s state arms manufacturer.

Mann’s 67 accused accomplices, arrested when their ageing Boeing 727 landed at Harare International Airport on March 7, were sentenced by a Zimbabwe court from 12 months to 16 months for minor immigration and aviation violations.