Thatcher Son Posts Bail in Equatorial Guinea Coup Case

03/09/2004| IslamWeb

Mark Thatcher paid two million rand (250,000 euros/ 300,000 dollars) in bail to end a nine-day house arrest imposed after he was charged with bankrolling a coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a source close to him said. The 51-year-old millionaire businessman son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was charged on August 25 and placed under house arrest in his upscale home in the Cape Town suburb of Constantia pending payment of bail. Thatcher will now be able to walk out of his home although his movements are restricted to the Cape peninsula and he must report daily to the police. "The deed of security is being achieved today," the source said. "The money has arrived in our trust ... we simply give a deed of security. The document has been handed over, we are waiting for a confirmation," the source said. The source refused to comment on reports that Margaret Thatcher had put up the money. He said Thatcher was not specifically barred from going near airports or railway stations, adding: "In any case he wouldn't do that, would he? It would be rather OTT (over the top)." Thatcher's fortunes have taken a nosedive since his arrest. His Texan-born wife Diane and two children flew out of South Africa on Monday for the United States and the government of Equatorial Guinea now wants to question him over his alleged involvement in a plot to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has been in power in Malabo for 25 years. Thatcher is due in court on November 25 to answer charges he contributed 275,000 dollars (230,000 euros) to the plot whose alleged mastermind, Briton Simon Mann, is a friend and neighbour in Constantia. Mann, founder of the defunct mercenary outfit Executive Outcomes, was found guilty of attempting to illegally purchase weapons in a Zimbabwe court last week in connection with the conspiracy. Thatcher's lawyers have denied the charges against the son of the Iron Lady and said the money paid to a South African aircraft company was to be invested in an air ambulance venture for west Africa. Thatcher is charged under South Africa's law barring mercenary activity and faces a fine or jail term if convicted. To add to his travails, Thatcher's name has appeared daily in South African newspapers, more often than not in an unflattering context. A commentary in the mass-circulation The Star daily on Friday said Thatcher -- who famously managed to get lost during the Paris-Dakar rally as a young man -- was enjoying the good life even while under house arrest. "Poor him, all alone in the trappings of colonial opulence," commentator Jovial Rantao said, adding: "I know where he should be. He should be in a crowded jail cell somewhere in Cape Town. "He should be sharing that cell with other suspected crime offenders who have been unable to post bail set by the courts," Rantao said, adding that Thatcher should be booted out of South Africa if found guilty. A letter in another leading daily published earlier evoked the fact that Margaret Thatcher had opposed a proposal by several Commonwealth countries for sanctions on South Africa's erstwhile apartheid regime and said her son's presence was a blot on the country's long and hard-fought struggle for freedom. On Friday, Thatcher's home was quiet with only his personal security guards driving out of the sprawling complex in a Land Rover and another guard stationed at the imposing gate, an AFP photographer saw. The double storey thatched roof mansion has a huge kidney-shaped pool, a tennis court and manicured lawns with shrubs trimmed into globes. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Mark Thatcher (C) is escorted by members of the Scorpions unit to an awaiting car at his home in Cape Town. (AFP)