by Rodrigo Nguema
MALABO, Aug 25 (AFP) - The trial of 18 suspected coup-plotters in Equatorial Guinea took a new twist Wednesday after the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was arrested in South Africa for allegedly bankrolling the putschists.
Mark Thatcher, 51, a millionaire businessman, was arrested during a predawn raid at his home in the Cape Town suburb of Constantia for violating the Foreign Military Assistance Act banning mercenary activities, said Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the Scorpions elite investigating unit.
"We have a serious case against him. We have found information that he funded the alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea," Ngwema told AFP.
When the coup plotters` trial resumed in Malabo Wednesday, the suspected leader of the would-be putschists, South African Nick du Toit, told the prosecution he had met with Thatcher in July last year.
But, du Toit said, their meeting was purely to clinch a business deal.
"We talked strictly about business issues concerning the sale and purchase of helicopters," Du Toit said, adding that the company he heads in Equatorial Guinea has full legal status "and is registered with the South African defence ministry."
"There was nothing illegal about this transaction," said du Toit`s lawyer.
Du Toit said he was put in contact with Thatcher by Simon Mann, a British businessman currently on trial in Zimbabwe in connection with the attempt to topple veteran Equatorial Guinea`s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Mann is alleged to have led a group of 70 suspected mercenaries who were arrested in Zimbabwe on March 7 and accused by Obiang of intending to join du Toit and his colleagues in Equatorial Guinea to take part in the coup.
Thatcher has admitted in an interview with Britain`s Daily Telegraph newspaper that he was friends with Mann, who allegedly smuggled a letter out of his Harare cell requesting help from "Scratcher", said to be code for his surname.
In a recent interview published in French magazine Jeune Afrique l`Intelligent, Obiang accused Thatcher and a former minister in his mother`s government of complicity in the attempted coup.
"Certain elements also indicate that Mark Thatcher and a former Thatcher cabinet minister, whom I cannot name, could have been involved in the coup," he said.
Du Toit was arrested in March in Malabo along with seven other South Africans, six Armenians and a German national. The German died a few weeks later in captivity, officially from cerebral malaria although rights groups say he was tortured to death.
When the trial of the alleged would-be putschists opened on Monday, four Equato-Guineans, including the former deputy economic planning minister Antonio Javier Nguema Nchama, who was chairman of a company run by du Toit, were also among the defendants.
Obiang has also accused a Britain-based Lebanese oil tycoon and Equatorial Guinean opposition leader Severo Moto, who is living in exile in Spain -- the country`s former colonial ruler -- of being involved in the alleged putsch.
The prosecution has called for the death sentence for du Toit, and for jail terms ranging from 26 to 86 years for his co-accused.
South Africa has said it will intervene if Du Toit is sentenced to death.
Attorney General Jose Olo Obono on Wednesday rejected claims that some of the 18 alleged coup-plotters were innocent.
"They were all involved in this (coup) bid. The charge sheet resumes the level of involvement of each one of them point by point," Olo Obono told AFP.
"They recognise that they set off for the airport but refuse to admit that they were going there to meet the rest of the team," he said, referring to 70 alleged mercenaries led by Mann arrested in March in Zimbabwe.
"My impression is that they simply want to change tactic and place all the blame on Nick du Toit."
Du Toit has admitted in court that he had a limited role in the alleged coup bid, and disculpated his four Equato-Guinean co-defendants.
Three South African defendants on Tuesday denied playing any part in the alleged coup plot.
Two more of their compatriots on Wednesday also denied any knowledge of a coup plot. All five said they worked in Equatorial Guinea for du Toit`s security company, Triple Option Trading.