Phone records link Archer to suspect in Guinea coup plot

New has emerged linking the author and British Conservative peer Jeffrey Archer to the alleged conspirators behind the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea.

A lawyer for the Equatorial Guinea government said in London on Tuesday that telephone records showed four calls between the homes of one of the alleged financiers behind the plot, London-based Lebanese businessman Ely Calil, and Archer in the run-up to the coup attempt in March. Another alleged plotter, businessman Greg Wales, also made five calls to Mark Thatcher in the days after the failed coup.

Tuesday night Archer re-sponded to a report about the telephone calls in the London Evening Standard. His lawyer released a statement on behalf of the peer, who was jailed for perjury and perverting the course of justice in 2001.

"The Evening Standard reports that on January 3, 2004 Lord Archer was telephoned from Calil's number on two occasions, and one of those calls lasted for 15 minutes," the statement said. "That call was between different family members and did not include Lord Archer, who on that occasion was in Cambridge."

The telephone records obtained by the newspaper show that Calil, who has denied any involvement in the coup attempt, called Archer on four occasions.

Archer, who has denied any involvement, was first dragged into the controversy after a payment from a JH Archer of US$134,000 was deposited into the bank account of Simon Mann, formerly of the UK's special services, who led the failed coup and was subsequently jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe on charges linked to the plot.

Thatcher to appear in court in Cape Town next month on charges of helping finance the plot.