SOUTH AFRICA: The son of the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher will plead guilty in a South African court today to being involved in the failed attempt to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea, according to legal sources.
In exchange for a suspended five-year jail sentence and a £270,000 (€385,000) fine, Sir Mark Thatcher will admit to financing a helicopter to take part in the plot to topple the west African government.
It is understood that Sir Mark will admit being negligent in not reporting the helicopter might be put to suspicious use, an offence under the foreign military assistance act, South Africa's anti-mercenary law.
Sir Mark (51) had said he had thought the aircraft was to be used as an air ambulance, but the pilot, Crause Steyl, told the South African authorities that the intention was to provide air support for the coup.
The prosecution will not press conspiracy charges, apparently having settled for his admission that he allowed his money to be potentially used for "purposes nefarious", one legal source said.
Evidence shows that Sir Mark was in telephone contact at crucial times with the British-based businessmen alleged to have been behind the plot, as well as having links with Simon Mann, the British mercenary and his neighbour in the smart Cape Town suburb of Constantia, who is serving a seven-year jail sentence in Zimbabwe in connection with the plot.
Sir Mark is still liable to be pursued by the regime of President Teodoro Obiang in Equatorial Guinea.
He said he had feared an extradition request before Christmas intended to put him with the convicted plotters serving sentences in Equatorial Guinea's notorious Black Beach jail.
But sources close to the regime said last night that an extradition request was unlikely to be pursued.
However, there are expected to be renewed efforts to compel him to answer questions from Equatorial Guinea, and some of the voluminous evidence collected by South Africa's investigators may be shared with President Obiang's lawyers.
Equatorial Guinea is still vigorously pursuing the "London connection" to the coup attempt.
A court in the Channel Island of Guernsey is due to decide next month whether Mann's offshore bank details should be handed over, identifying the coup's financiers.
The terms of Sir Mark's plea bargain are to be made public at the high court hearing in Cape Town today, which he is expected to attend.
Assuming that the court accepts the deal, he should have his passport returned and be free to leave his adopted country for the first time since he was arrested last August.
A source close to Sir Mark said he still privately protested his innocence, but had entered into the plea bargain to avoid a trial that could have lasted three years and ended in a jail term. The source said: "It's an indictment of our system that an innocent man should be placed in the position of admitting guilt because otherwise the case would drag on and on and on." - (Guardian Service)