Despot will testify on Thatcher coup attempt in a British court

[emad]

Times
By Liz Chong

THE President of Equatorial Guinea is expected to become the first foreign leader to testify and be cross-examined in a British court of law.

Lawyers for President Obiang told a court in Guernsey last week that he was prepared to give evidence against the British-based businessmen who allegedly plotted a failed coup attempt in the oil-rich West African state.

Simon Mann, the former SAS officer, Eli Calil, the Lebanese millionaire, and Greg Wales, a businessman, all deny involvement in the coup attempt.

Mann, an Old Etonian, is serving a four-year jail sentence in Zimbabwe for buying arms illegally. Sir Mark Thatcher, now living in London with his mother, has paid a £265,000 fine to avoid jail in South Africa after admitting that he helped to buy a helicopter that would have been used to fly opposition leaders into Equatorial Guinea after Mr Obiang was toppled.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1497736,00.html

SO, not a headline about Shrub after all.....