Eq. Guinea coup backers could try again: Simon Mann

By Daniel Flynn

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".