Home, sweet home for SA coup accused

[emad]

Boyd Webb
December 08 2004 at 11:00AM

A South African accused of having been involved in a plot to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's president earlier this year said on Tuesday he was relieved to be back home.

"South Africa is a fantastic country which you don't realise how good it is till you leave it," Mark Schmidt told the National Press Club in Pretoria.

He was found not guilty and released on November 27 "after months of hell" in detention in the West African country.

He said he and seven other South Africans and a number of Armenians had been beaten, shackled and starved in prison.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=vn20041208083528919C235074