South Africa, Spain and the US each approved a plot to topple Equatorial Guinea’s president, British mercenary Simon Mann told a Malabo court on Wednesday.
Testifying at his ongoing trial, Mann said the Spanish government was 100 percent ready to support the operation, whose participants included Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
The US and unnamed oil companies agreed that the political situation in Equatorial Guinea was unstable and that a change of government would be welcome, he added.
Mann — whom prosecutors allege spearheaded the operation — also said that South African secret services had passed him a message from its head to the effect that it was giving him a green light to mount a coup.
Speaking calmly, with his hands clasped behind his back, Mann’s testimony was translated from English into Spanish by a court interpreter.
COLONIAL POWER
Quizzed by Attorney General Jose Olo Obono, Mann said Spain was chosen because it was the former colonial power in the territory, the US because of its importance in the oil sector and South Africa for its significance as a regional power.
Asked about the allegations, Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman Manuel Cacho said in Madrid: “The Spanish government obviously denies these allegations, as it already did in 2004 through Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.”
COUP
Mann, 55, said the coup was aimed at installing Severo Moto as president — Moto being a political opponent of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has been sentenced in absentia to several years in jail. Moto is now behind bars in Madrid for trafficking arms to Malabo.
Mann described Mark Thatcher as a key member of the plot, with a role that went beyond raising money for the failed 2004 bid to oust Obiang.
Thatcher had been in contact with Moto to transport him to the Spanish Canary Islands off Africa’s west coast and then on to Mali to await his return to power in the oil-rich former Spanish colony, Mann said.
Thatcher agreed to pay for Moto’s travel costs, Mann added.
Dressed in a striped prisoner’s shirt, Mann said he came to know Thatcher when they were neighbors in Cape Town.
MEETING
A preliminary meeting with the coup’s alleged creative force, London-based millionaire Ely Calil, had revealed that Thatcher and Calil knew each other, Mann added.
Thatcher pleaded guilty in 2005 to breaking the anti-mercenary laws of South Africa, where he was then living. He avoided prison with a suspended four-year sentence and a 3 million rand (US$505,000) fine.
Equatorial Guinea has already issued an international arrest warrant for Thatcher, who left South Africa for the US.
Mann — who faces 30 years in jail — was arrested in 2004 at Harare airport with 61 alleged accomplices when their plane touched down en route to Equatorial Guinea.
Zimbabwean authorities accused them of trying to pick up arms before launching their coup attempt. Mann said at the time that the group was on its way to provide security to private mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Obiang has been in power in Equatorial Guinea since he overthrew his own uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, in 1979. Under his rule the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producers, but the country’s oil revenues are a state secret.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese