The Telegraph, UK
April 15 2005
Men jailed over ‘Thatcher plot’ are being starved to death in jail,
claims Amnesty
By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg
(Filed: 15/04/2005)
Foreigners alleged to be part of a coup plot linked to Sir Mark
Thatcher are among dozens of inmates facing death by starvation in
Equatorial Guinea, Amnesty International said yesterday.
Authorities in the notorious Black Beach prison reduced the daily
food ration in December from a cup of rice to one or two bread rolls.
But since February prisoners have been without food for up to six
days at a time.
“Many are extremely weak because of torture or ill-treatment and
because of chronic illnesses,” said Kolawole Olaniyan, the director
of Amnesty’s Africa programme. “Unless immediate action is taken,
many of those detained there will die.”
Some receive food only from relatives who hand it to the prison
guards. In the past six weeks, however, relatives, lawyers and
consular officials have been denied access to the alleged
mercenaries.
The men are Armenians and South Africans alleged to have been the
advance party of a group of mercenaries led by Simon Mann, a former
British SAS officer. The group of 70 was arrested in Zimbabwe as its
aircraft landed to pick up arms. Mann was jailed for seven years,
reduced to four, and the rest, mostly apartheid-era special forces,
to lesser terms.
Nick du Toit, a former South African special forces soldier and
allegedly the leader of the Equatorial Guinea advance party, at first
admitted taking part in the coup attempt but withdrew his statement
claiming it was extracted under torture.
He was jailed for 34 years after what Amnesty and other international
observers condemned as a grotesquely unfair trial. Thatcher was
arrested at his Cape Town home in connection with the Equatorial
Guinea plot which was uncovered and reported to the governments
involved by the South African intelligence service.
Lady Thatcher’s son denied any knowledge of the coup attempt, saying
he had agreed to purchase a helicopter for the group. He later
pleaded guilty to helping to finance the mission and was fined
£265,000 and given a four-year suspended jail term by a South African
court. He has left South Africa having agreed to co-operate with
investigators “in any way I can”.
Ricardo Nfube, Equatorial Guinea’s second deputy prime minister,
accused Amnesty of tarnishing his country’s image. “Prisoners are not
going hungry,” he said. “We have assured their basic rights.”