Mark Thatcher

The move marks the latest twist in a convoluted saga of global politics, money and mercenaries that has led to stiff jail sentences in Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe for the alleged ringleaders.

Thatcher, 51, was fined 3 million rand (roughly $505,000) and given a four-year suspended prison term after the plea bargain, which allows him to leave South Africa and rejoin his family in the United States.

Thatcher was arrested Aug. 25 at his Cape Town villa on charges of contributing $275,000 to help finance the suspected plot to overthrow longtime Equatorial Guinea leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

He allegedly put up the cash to purchase a helicopter to fly opposition leader Severo Moto, living in exile in Spain, to Malabo once Nguema had been deposed.

The Equatorial Guinean government in March announced that it had nabbed 15 suspected mercenaries it said were the advance party for more than 60 more arrested in the Zimbabwe capital Harare, led by Briton Simon Mann.

Mann, who was sentenced in September to seven years in prison on weapons charges related to the alleged coup plot -- recently reduced to four years -- was Thatcher's neighbor in the upscale Cape Town suburb of Constantia.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 22, 2005
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