Mark Thatcher - Equatorial Guinea Coup

Equatorial Guinea Coup

On 25 August 2004, Thatcher was arrested at his home in Constantia, Cape Town, South Africa. He was charged later that day with contravening two sections of South Africa's "Foreign Military Assistance Act", which bans South African residents from taking part in any foreign military activity. The charges related to "possible funding and logistical assistance in relation to attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea" organized by Thatcher's friend, Simon Mann. He was released on 2 million rand bail and spent a period of time under house arrest, but was bailed to London to live with his widowed mother while his wife and children moved to the family's home in Dallas, Texas.

On 24 November 2004, the Cape Town High Court upheld a subpoena from the South African Justice Ministry that required him to answer under oath questions from Equatorial Guinean authorities regarding the alleged coup attempt. He was due to face questioning on 25 November 2004, regarding offences under the South African Foreign Military Assistance Act; however, these proceedings were later postponed until 8 April 2005. Ultimately, following a process of plea bargaining, Thatcher pleaded guilty in January 2005 to breaking anti-mercenary legislation in South Africa by investing in an aircraft "without taking proper investigations into what it would be used for", admitting in court that he had paid the money, but said he was under the impression it was to be invested in an air ambulance service to help impoverished Africans. The judge rejected this explanation and Thatcher was fined R3,000,000 rand and received a four-year suspended jail sentence.

On 3 April 2005, Thatcher, then living with his mother in Belgravia, London, announced that his family home would be in Europe after he was refused a residence visa to live in the United States as a result of his guilty plea in the Equatorial Guinea affair. His children, he stated, will be educated in the United States.

Under the headline "Mark Thatcher – undesirable in Monaco?" French newspaper Le Figaro reported on 20 December 2005:

Margaret Thatcher's son, the former British prime minister's nefarious offspring, will not be installing himself in the principality of Monaco as he hoped." A spokesman for Prince Albert II of Monaco told Le Figaro that Thatcher's residency card would not be renewed. "He has a temporary residency card valid for one year. It will not be renewed when it expires in the second half of 2006 and he will have to leave." The spokesman, Armand Deus, added: "I cannot say why it will not be renewed. But the Prince made things very clear during his investiture in July when he said that ethics will be at the centre of life in Monaco."

In Equatorial Guinea in June 2008, Simon Mann claimed during his trial testimony that Thatcher, then resident in Spain, "was not just an investor, he came completely on board and became a part of the management team" of the coup plot. Around the time of the 2005 plea bargain, an advisor to Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that: "We are confident that justice has been done", and did not indicate that the country would seek Thatcher's extradition.