Eq. Guinea coup backers could try again: Simon Mann
MALABO (Reuters) - Powerful international businessmen who allegedly masterminded a failed 2004 coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea could try again to seize power there, a British mercenary said at his trial on Thursday.
Simon Mann, who faces a possible jail term of nearly 32 years for his part in the 2004 coup bid in the West African state, said in defense testimony the group of plotters was headed by London-based Lebanese-born millionaire, Eli Calil.
Mann, an Eton-educated former special forces officer, has admitted in the trial in the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo which began on Tuesday that he was involved in the abortive conspiracy to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
But he denies he was one of the leaders who, he said, included Calil and Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Both Calil and Mark Thatcher have denied knowing about the coup, and are not on trial.
"I was like the employee," Mann on Thursday told the court, which also heard testimony from six Equatorial Guinea citizens accused of participating in the plot. Mann has testified it was supported by the governments of Spain and South Africa.
Spain's government denied the allegation on Wednesday.
"There is a group of people around Calil ... very powerful. Although I don't know their identities I know they exist ... I'm quite sure they are not going to give up," Mann said.
He added that Calil, who made his fortune in Nigeria's oil sector and who Mann said was the coup's main financial backer, was known among his fellow plotters as "the Cardinal".
The March 2004 coup plot was foiled when authorities in Zimbabwe arrested Mann and 70 mercenaries at Harare airport en route to Equatorial Guinea aboard a Boeing 727.
Public Prosecutor Jose Olo Obono has said Equatorial Guinea will seek the extradition of Mark Thatcher and Calil.
The court, sitting in a marble-walled conference centre in Malabo, guarded by heavily armed soldiers, has not specified when it will give its verdict or pass sentence.
SOUTH AFRICAN INTELLIGENCE LINK
Under questioning from his defense lawyer, Mann elaborated on what he said was the involvement of South Africa's intelligence services in the 2004 plot, which aimed to replace Obiang with exiled opposition leader Severo Moto.
Obiang has ruled Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer, since 1979.
Mann said South African security and airline company OMEGA, which employed Nick du Toit as its representative in Equatorial Guinea, had close links with South Africa's intelligence. Du Toit is serving a 34-year jail term in Equatorial Guinea after being convicted of being part of the 2004 plot.
"Nick, OMEGA and (South African) National Intelligence were working all together and towards the coup d'etat," Mann said.
South African Du Toit, who was alleged to have led an advance group of mercenaries, was tried and sentenced in 2004 along with 10 other foreigners and two local men.
In testimony on Wednesday, Mann had said that an intelligence contact, Nick Morgan, who liaised with South Africa's intelligence services, had assured him that Pretoria approved of the coup bid.
According to Mann, Morgan even asked him to provide Moto's telephone number so that South African President Thabo Mbeki could call Moto if the coup succeeded.
Mann told the court on Thursday Calil and Moto had believed the coup would find popular support among Equatorial Guinea's mostly poor 600,000 population, most of whom rights groups say receive little benefit from the country's oil wealth.
"If that were not the case, how would this plan be remotely practical?" Mann asked.
Equatorial Guinea was ranked as the 10th most corrupt country in the world last year by Transparency International.
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)
(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Stephen Weeks)
