The Hindu : New Delhi News : Warrant sought for Mark Thatcher

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Warrant sought for Mark Thatcher

David Pallister

Mark Thatcher

Equatorial Guinea has issued a request for an Interpol arrest warrant for Mark Thatcher, son of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, in connection with his alleged involvement in a failed coup attempt in the west African country five years ago.

Mr. Thatcher is accused of helping British mercenary Simon Mann to stage a coup. Interpol headquarters in Lyons said the request was being processed. Details of Mr. Thatcher’s involvement have been provided by Mann, who was extradited from Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea two months ago.

Mann, who is awaiting trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government and threatening to kill the President, has already said in an interview from Black Beach prison in the capital, Malabo, for Britain’s Channel 4 television that Lady Thatcher’s 54-year-old son was “part of the team.” In 2005, Mr. Thatcher was fined £265,000 and given a four-year suspended sentence in South Africa, where he and Mann lived, after a plea bargain in which he admitted helping to finance the purchase of a helicopter for the plotters even though he suspected it might be used for mercenary activity.

The announcement of the warrant request was made on Thursday by Jose Olo Obono, Equatorial Guinea’s Attorney-General. “We are not going to let this drop,” he said. “We will pursue him wherever he goes.” Mr. Obono was speaking to British journalists who had flown to Malabo on advice from official sources that Mann would give a press conference this week before his trial. Neither event has taken place and the trial is not expected for several weeks. — ©Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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