The son of the former British prime minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher was arrested and charged today with helping to finance a foiled coup attempt in oil rich Equatorial Guinea.
Mr Mark Thatcher and his mother, former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher, at the funeral of her husband, Denis.
Sir Mark Thatcher, a 51-year-old businessman who has lived in South Africa since 2002, was arrested at his Cape Town home and brought before the Wynberg Magistrate's Court to be charged with violating South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act.
The court released Mr Thatcher but set strict conditions on his freedom and required him to return to court in November to face charges.
Mr Thatcher was required to remain in his Cape Town home until he paid a bank guarantee of 2 million rand (€260,000), required by a deadline of September 8th.
Police with search warrants raided Mr Thatcher's home in the suburb of Constantia shortly after 7 a.m. (6 a.m. Irish time) today.
He was held there while investigators searched his records and computers for evidence linking him to the alleged plot to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang, which authorities claim was foiled in March.
"We have evidence, credible evidence, and information that he was involved in the attempted coup," said police spokesman Mr Sipho Ngwema. "We refuse that South Africa be a springboard for coups in Africa and elsewhere."
Eighty four foreigners, mostly South Africans, have been put on trial simultaneously in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea in one of Africa's most spectacular mercenary cases for decades.
"We have alleged that he (Thatcher) is a financier in that particular coup attempt ... we are looking for documents that are going to assist us in our investigation. We take this very seriously," Mr Ngwema said as his colleagues searched the house.
Local media said he is a friend of Mr Simon Mann, the former British special forces member regarded as the leader of the Zimbabwe group of suspected mercenaries, who were arrested in March when their plane landed in Harare on what officials said was a trip to join co-conspirators in Equatorial Guinea.
At their trial in Equatorial Guinea yesterday, a South African suspect told the court the plotters hoped to install an exiled opposition politician at the helm of the oil-rich state.
South African Mr Nick du Toit said he had met with Mr Mann, who is among those now held in Zimbabwe, to discuss buying weapons, recruiting personnel and logistics for the alleged coup plot.
Privately educated at Britain's elite Harrow School but with little academic success, Mr Thatcher failed his accountancy examinations three times.
Mr Thatcher, who the British media dubbed "The Boy Mark," was worshipped by his mother. He tried a number of jobs including car rally driver.
When her son got lost in the Sahara desert during a sports car rally in 1982, the "Iron Lady" broke down and wept in public. She only shed tears again when she quit the premiership.
Just how he financed his extravagant lifestyle has been a matter of rumour and innuendo for years in Britain which he left in the mid-1980s for the United States to escape press attention. He later moved to South Africa.