Arms dealer linked to Thatcher escapes death sentence

A South African arms dealer linked to Sir Mark Thatcher escaped the death penalty but was jailed for 34 years today for his role in an Equatorial Guinea coup plot.

Dozens of alleged South African and Armenian mercenaries were also jailed in the oil-rich African nation.

The failure to impose the death penalty on Nick du Toit could help Equatorial Guinea in its bid to extradite the most prominent figure in the alleged plot: the 51-year-old son of former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher.

Thatcher – charged in South Africa in connection with the alleged conspiracy - and all others deny any involvement.

Twenty-one shackled defendants listened in a chandelier-hung courtroom in a converted conference centre in the capital Malabo as Judge Salvador Ondo Nkumu read out verdicts and sentences.

Du Toit initially gave detailed testimony of plans of alleged conspirators, while insisting his co-defendants in Equatorial Guinea knew nothing of any plot.

Then retracted his evidence, saying he agreed to parrot a false confession only to try to save himself and the others from death.

Opposition figure Severo Moto, the only other defendant for whom prosecutors had requested the death penalty, was sentenced in his absence to 63 years. Eight other opposition figures also living in exile were sentenced to 52 years each.

Equatorial Guinea alleges Thatcher and other, mainly British, financiers commissioned the bid to overthrow the 25 year regime of President Teodoro Obiang.

Plotters intended to install an opposition politician as the figurehead leader of Africa’s third largest producer, prosecutors said

Thatcher – charged in South Africa in connection with the alleged conspiracy - and all others deny any involvement.

The court sentenced six other South Africans whom prosecutors said were mercenaries to 17 years each in prison. Three Armenian pilots who the government said were hired to fly in gunmen and materiel received 24 years each in prison, and three others 14 years each.

Equatorial Guineans accused in the alleged plot received more leniency. Two received sentences of one- to four months, and two were acquitted. Three other South Africans also were acquitted.

Defence lawyers said they would appeal the convictions.

The verdicts brought no reaction in the courtroom, filled with family members of the defendants.

The defendants – in leg irons, handcuffs and chains since their arrests in March t – rattled out of the courtroom after the verdict was read.

Equatorial Guinea has one of the world’s worst human rights records. The US State Department and others accuse it of routine torture and stopping dissent. The International Bar Association has questioned the independence of the court system, accusing Obiang of interfering in trials.

Several mercenaries said earlier in court they had been tortured, with at least one showing scars to the courtroom.

In South Africa today, a magistrate postponed a Thatcher court appearance to give his lawyers time to try to appeal a high court judgment requiring him to answer questions from Equatorial Guinea about the coup.

He had been ordered by a high court to appear in magistrate’s court today to answer the questions posed by Equatorial Guinea.

Magistrate Helen Alman postponed the appearance until February 18 to give Thatcher’s lawyers time to appeal the high court ruling.