The New Zealand Herald
Saturday November 20, 2004
South African Nick du Toit arrives in court in Malabo. Picture / Reuters
Equatorial Guinea coup suspects claim they were tortured
19.11.2004
12.30pm
MALABO – A South African arms dealer who could face death for plotting to
overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea told a court on Thursday he and
his comrades had been chained like animals and tortured into confessing.
Equatorial Guinea’s state prosecutor demanded the death penalty for Nick du
Toit and decades in jail for 13 other suspected foreign mercenaries.
However, in a dramatic final day of submissions in a trial that began in
August, the defendants stood up in ankle chains and hand-cuffs to plead
their innocence.
“No weapons, no arms, no explosives were found on us,” du Toit said.
“We have done nothing wrong. Since our arrest, we have been chained like
wild animals … We have been tortured by the police … There hasn’t been
any coup attempt.”
State Prosecutor Jose Olo Obono rejected any allegations of mistreatment,
saying all prisoners’ rights had been respected.
“Any statement to the contrary … is not admissible in this trial,” he told
the court.
He demanded jail terms ranging from 26 to 86 years for seven other South
Africans, six Armenians and two Equatorial Guineans. He dropped charges
against three other Equatorial Guineans.
Until this week, du Toit was the only one of the defendants who admitted
involvement in the plot to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
However, he retracted his confession on Tuesday, saying it was extracted
through torture.
Obono said the men were working for an international web of financiers
aiming to install exiled politician Severo Moto in power in the country,
sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest oil producer. Moto, who lives in Spain,
denies involvement.
His name and those of eight members of his self-proclaimed government in
exile were added to the original charge sheet on Tuesday, and the prosecutor
asked for death for Moto and 102 years in jail for the others, to be
convicted in absentia.
Fourteen people, including Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher, are also listed in court documents read out by
Obono as financiers of the plot.
Thatcher is accused of providing the alleged plotters with $275,000,
($394,000) while Lebanese oil tycoon Eli Calil is alleged to have
contributed US$750,000. Both deny any involvement.
Lawyers for Equatorial Guinea denied media reports that the country had
charged Thatcher. Equatorial Guinea has yet to say whether it will seek his
extradition from South Africa.
The verdict in the trial will be announced on November 26. Defence lawyers
on Thursday said all the suspects in the courtroom were innocent and should
be acquitted.
The lawyer for the eight South Africans, Fabian Nsue Nguema, said his
clients had suffered physical abuses including beating, trampling and a
torture session in a room with blood-stained walls, and mental torment
including death threats.
Several of the South Africans spoke of torture when given a chance to speak
at the court session’s end. They said their wrists and ankles had been
chained since their arrest in March.
“Please, please remove these handcuffs…We’ve been like this for eight
months 24 hours a day,” Joao Americo Pimentel Riveiro told the presiding
judge.
Equatorial Guinea says the plot was organised by Simon Mann, a former
British special forces officer jailed by Zimbabwe in August on weapons
charges related to the alleged coup.
A number of British businessmen are also named in the list of financiers
handed out in the court, including a J H Archer. He is alleged to have
provided US$240,000 to the coup plotters.
Disgraced British politician and best-selling novelist Jeffrey H Archer, who
spent time behind bars for perjury in a libel case, has denied links to any
coup plot.
“Lord Archer emphatically denies any involvement with the alleged coup in
Equatorial Guinea,” his lawyers said in London.
– REUTERS