CONTRARY to what many people believe, it seems that Sir Mark Thatcher has a lot of friends. But the wayward son of Baroness Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, is hopeless at keeping in touch.
Sir Mark was back in a South African court yesterday to answer questions about his role in an alleged coup plot in the tiny, oil-rich West African state of Equatorial Guinea. He admitted knowing all but two of the eleven alleged plotters.
But he denied any knowledge of the coup attempt and said that he had met the alleged plotters socially and only a handful of times. He had not met many of them since 2003.
In fact, he told The Times later outside the Cape Town court, he had not seen two of them — an old friend David Hart and the disgraced Tory peer Lord Archer of Westonsuper-Mare — for more than five years. “This is Macarthyism — guilt by association,” he said after the hearing in response to a question about his choice of friends.
Dressed in his trademark blue blazer, with a large colourful handkerchief in the breast pocket, Sir Mark, 51, looked nervous as he entered the dock to answer 43 questions submitted by Equatorial Guinea. He has admitted breaking South Africa’s tough anti-mercenary laws unwittingly by agreeing to finance a helicopter that was to be used to fly opposition leaders into the country to take power after the overthrow of President Obiang.
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Last month he agreed a plea bargain and was given a suspended jail term and ordered to pay a £265,000 fine.
Fidgeting nervously, Sir Mark was also asked yesterday about his relationship with Simon Mann, a fellow Briton serving a four-year jail sentence in Zimbabwe for his role in the failed coup. A magistrate, Helen Alman, read the questions submitted by Equatorial Guinea. She asked why Mr Mann had claimed that he (Sir Mark) had agreed to provide funds for the coup bid.
“I am not aware that Mr Mann made any such claims and if he did, I can’t think of a reason why he should have done,” Sir Mark said.
Many of the questions contained spelling mistakes, which Sir Mark eagerly pointed out, and no representatives of Equatorial Guinea were in court to hear his replies, initially requested to help in the trial of 14 suspected mercenaries arrested in Malabo, the Equatorial Guinea capital, last March. That trial ended four months ago.
At times the proceedings bordered on farce. “It is an established fact that you have been arrested in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the crime of trafficking in arms. Can you tell us what kind of arms is been refer and what was outcome of incident?” read one question.
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“I have never been arrested on any matter in Saudi Arabia,” an indignant Sir Mark answered. He repeated that in early 2004, he transferred $275,000 (£145,000) to a company that was subsequently linked to the plot — but that he was told at the time that this was to help to fund a civilian helicopter.
After the hearing, Sir Mark again protested his innocence to reporters outside the court. He said: “It is a mystery why I should have to give evidence in a trial that ended four months ago.
“However, I am happy to have had the opportunity to do so, and do so under oath as . . . it is patently clear that I had nothing to do with financing any coup in Equatorial Guinea.”