British coup-plotter leaves Equatorial Guinea

By MICHELLE FAUL Associated Press Writer

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Before leaving Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday, freed coup-plotter Simon Mann said the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and others should face justice for allegedly plotting to overthrow the oil-rich country's government.

Mann and the four South African mercenaries who also were pardoned Tuesday had been given 24 hours to leave the Central African nation.

In a trial last year in the tiny Central African nation, Mann testified that Mark Thatcher had provided $350,000, which was used to buy a small plane that was to transport Equatorial Guinea's exiled opposition leader Severo Moto from Madrid to Equatorial Guinea.

His testimony had implicated Thatcher as chief bankroller and Nigerian-born British citizen Eli Calil - allegations both men denied. Thatcher pleaded guilty in a South African court to unwittingly helping fund the operation. He was fined and given a suspended sentence.

Mann said after his release from prison that he was "happy that we did not succeed in 2004."

"But as far as I'm concerned, I am very anxious that Calil, Thatcher and one or two of the others, should face justice," Mann said.

The former Spanish colony is the continent's No. 3 oil producer. The U.S. government reportedly got wind of the plot and blew the whistle, though no U.S. government official ever confirmed that. Several leading U.S. oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, Amerada Hess and ChevronTexaco, operate in Equatorial Guinea.

Mann and his co-defendants were convicted in a trial that aired a plot in which well-connected Britons and others sought to install Moto. The coup unraveled before it even began, when Mann and a planeload of other mercenaries were arrested in Zimbabwe where they were to buy assault rifles, grenades and anti-tank rockets.

Mann and the four South Africans were freed from Black Beach prison on Tuesday. A receptionist at the Hotel Paraiso said Mann had left the hotel early Wednesday. And a man who answered the telephone at the airport said a private jet carrying Mann and two other people had left around 7 a.m.

He refused to give his name but said the plane was supposed to be going to Britain. Mann's brother and sister had flown to Malabo to welcome him on his release.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Jose Obono Olo said Tuesday that President Teodoro Obiang Nguema had granted the five men full pardons on humanitarian grounds.