Simon Mann In Full: African Coup Plotter Points Fingers

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


2574156714_854fb57b34.jpg

You wouldn’t know it from the American newspapers, but if you click on virtually any British news site today (try here, here, and here), you’ll read of a courtroom drama currently unfolding in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in which British mercenary Simon Mann is casting blame far and wide for the failed 2004 coup plot that aimed to topple the local dictator, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Details of the coup itself are already widely known, the subject of numerous magazine articles and several books, but in case you missed it: In March 2004, Mann was arrested along with 70 other mercenaries while their plane was refueling on the tarmac of an airport in Zimbabwe during a brief, late-night stopover while en route from South Africa to Equatorial Guinea. The mercenaries were carrying with them 61 AK-47s, 20 light machine guns, 50 heavy machine guns, 100 RPGs, along with tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition—equipment they said they intended to use to secure a mine in the Congo. The Zimbabwean authorities didn’t buy it, and Mann spent the next several years in a Harare prison. He was later released for good behavior, but immediately extradited to face criminal charges in Equatorial Guinea, where, if convicted, he could serve up to 32 additional years in prison.

Today in the Malabo courtroom, testifying in his own defense, Mann seemed eager to bring down his co-conspirators, if only perhaps to lessen his own sentence. The Eton-educated, former British special forces officer gave detailed accounts of the plotters motivations—namely, to replace Obiang with a new president who would give conspirators a cut of the country’s sizable oil wealth—as well as the leadership structure of the conspiracy.

Among Mann’s accusations:

  • Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, not only invested in the coup, “he came on board completely and became a part of the management team.”
  • Ely Calil, a British businessman who made his millions negotiating oil concessions in Nigeria, was the “boss” of the coup attempt.
  • The governments of Spain and South Africa signed off on the coup and made arrangements to recognize the new government, had the conspiracy succeeded. In effect, the coup was “like an official operation” with a “green light” from both governments.
  • Spain secretly offered to send a contingent of Civil Guards to help safeguard the new government after Obiang’s ouster.
  • A South African intelligence liaison said President Thabo Mbeki intended to call the new president of Equatorial Guinea after the coup to offer his support.
  • Both the Spanish and South African governments quickly denied Mann’s allegations, but, says Mann, “their involvement was clandestine, and they will never admit it.” Meanwhile, Thatcher and Calil remain free.

    Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Podknox.

    Fact:

    Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

    Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

    payment methods

    Fact:

    Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

    payment methods

    We Recommend

    Latest

    Sign up for our free newsletter

    Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

    Get our award-winning magazine

    Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

    Subscribe

    Support our journalism

    Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

    Donate