The release of the Equatorial Guinea coup plotters has sparked a flurry of debate over the motives for the presidential pardon as well as the fallout that could follow their threats to implicate Sir Mark Thatcher and others who were linked to the plan, writes Legalbrief.

British mercenary Simon Mann left the capital Malabo last week after serving 15 months of a 34-year sentence; he had already done three years in Zimbabwe's maximum security prison. According to a report on the IoL site, he and four South African mercenaries - Nick du Toit, George Alerson, Sergio Cardoso and Jose Sundays - who were also pardoned had been given 24 hours to leave and can never return. Mann, who is now back in Britain for the first time in five years, has threatened to settle some old scores. He will face questions from the Metropolitan Police under 'Operation Antara', which is supposed to discover if the coup-plotters broke British anti-terror laws during meetings in Chelsea and elsewhere in London in 2003 and 2004. A report in The Daily Telegraph notes that Mann, a former Etonian and SAS officer, was sentenced in July last year after he admitted taking part in a coup to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang. Following his trial, lawyers and diplomatic sources said that he had negotiated a deal with the government whereby he implicated individuals and foreign governments in return for his freedom. Meanwhile, Du Toit has given President Jacob Zuma the credit for his and his accomplices' pardon. 'We were told... that we were going to be freed. We were told that Zuma and his government were involved in the negotiations for our release and now today, we are free men,' said Du Toit. The Times reports that Zuma's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said he was not privy to any discussions that were held between Zuma and Obiang.
Full report on the IoL site
Full report in The Daily Telegraph
Full report in The Times
See also a report on the Mail & Guardian site

Cashing in on the opportunities presented by a coup were Nigel Morgan, a friend of Mann and Thatcher, and Johann Smith, a former South African military intelligence operative. Both Morgan, a former Irish Guards officer who worked for British intelligence, and Smith are self-confessed 'agents'. Mann and his supporters are said to be furious with Morgan, whom they accuse of treachery and betrayal, British newspapers reported recently. They believe that it was Morgan who tipped off South African authorities about the coup, and that the authorities in turn informed Zimbabwe, resulting in the arrest of Mann and his team at Harare Airport. According to a report on the IoL site, well-placed sources said Morgan had gone into hiding on a farm in South Africa, fearing for his safety. Mann and his friends believe that Morgan was in the pay of Equatorial Guinea all along and was a double agent - a charge Morgan has denied.
Full report on the IoL site

The South Africans who returned last Thursday were immediately whisked away by intelligence officers to be debriefed. From the debriefing it was learnt that for the first six months of their captivity their hands were cuffed behind their backs. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, their guards hurled their food on the cell floors and they had to eat it off the ground. Du Toit told the intelligence officers that his handcuffs had to be broken from his wrists with a hammer and a chisel because they were so corroded by blood that the key did not work. Meanwhile, the Justice Ministry has confirmed that they will not face any further charges. Justice spokesperson Tlali Tlali said that 'these people have paid for their sins and will not be charged again'. Former National Directorate of Public Prosecutions spokesperson, Jan Henning is quoted as saying it would have been 'grossly inhumane' to prosecute the mercenaries in SA. 'What they have done, is wrong and an offence. But what they have experienced by facing the death penalty and the prolonged torture in the Black Beach prison, goes beyond the bounds of reasonable borders for penance,' he said.
First Mail & Guardian Online report
Second Mail & Guardian Online report

Documents detailing Thatcher's alleged involvement in the botched coup are being examined by Scotland Yard. The Guardian reports that counter-terrorism command has yet to interview Thatcher or the businessman Ely Calil, who were named by Mann as the organisers and bankrollers of his failed plot. Codenamed Operation Antara, the police inquiry began in 2004 after Equatorial Guinea wrote to the Yard alleging that the men planned the operation on British soil. The inquiry was considered political and highly sensitive. Among the evidence are several statements made by Mann when British police visited him three times in prison in Equatorial Guinea. During these visits, Mann, who was jailed for 34 years for his involvement in the plot, is understood to have openly implicated Calil and Thatcher, an allegation he had previously made at his trial last year. Nevertheless, some governments may be worried about a vengeful Mann: He testified last year that the US and European governments knew of the 2004 plot in advance and welcomed it, as did international oil companies operating in the small West African nation. According to a report on the News24 site, analysts say that in addition to revenge, Mann's mission probably is part of the deal that won him freedom - to bring to justice the influential financiers who dreamed up the adventure that went so badly awry in the continent's No 3 oil producer. However, senior law enforcement officials say the investigation into Thatcher's role could be hindered by legal obstacles, which may mean he could never be prosecuted. Because Thatcher has already been convicted in South Africa of paying for a helicopter he suspected might be used for mercenary activity, the likelihood that he could be prosecuted in the UK on the same evidence for a similar offence is very slim, according to senior legal and police sources. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, sources indicated that the pursuit of Thatcher was primarily hindered by fears of double jeopardy because of his South African conviction, despite the fact that this took place in a different jurisdiction. Adrian Chaplin, a criminal barrister in London, agreed. He said there were potentially huge problems of abuse of process should Thatcher be charged with anything.
Full report in The Guardian
Full report on the News 24 site
Full Mail & Guardian Online report
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