Thatcher to plead guilty

[D_Raay]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4169557.stm

Carrying on the great Thatcher name....

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Sir Mark Thatcher is to plead guilty over his part in an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, reports say.

The son of former Prime Minister Lady Margaret Thatcher is accused of helping to finance an alleged coup.

He is reported to have agreed to a plea bargain and will make an unscheduled appearance at a court in Cape Town.

He will plead guilty to being negligent in investing in an aircraft said to have been used by alleged coup plotters, a BBC correspondent said.

The businessman had previously denied being involved in a plan to topple the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea but was barred from leaving South Africa while investigations continued.

Sir Mark, 51, was arrested in August at his home in South Africa and released after a bail payment of £167,000 ($314,000) was made.

Sir Mark, who has lived in South Africa since 1995, was charged with violating South Africa's anti-mercenary laws.

He was previously not expected back in court until 18 February.

The BBC's Alistair Leithead in Johannesburg said Sir Mark is expected to receive a suspended sentence of five years and a fine of between £200,000 ($374,000) and £500,000 ($934,000).

[Ace42]

I noticed that. Glad to see the shifty mcfuck "doing an Archer"

[D_Raay]

I am curious to see what old Margaret has to say about it. She hasn't commented as of yet.

[Ace42]

Probably "it was always Dennis's job to discipline the children"

[Whois]

I noticed that. Glad to see the shifty mcfuck "doing an Archer"

So who was Archer and what was he doing?

[Whois]

I am curious to see what old Margaret has to say about it. She hasn't commented as of yet.

The undead can only groan...

[Ace42]

So who was Archer and what was he doing?

Hahahahha, you do not know of Jeffery Archer? Hahahahahaha.

He was a dodgy mcfuck of the highest order.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/archer/0,2759,180881,00.html

[Whois]

Hahahahha, you do not know of Jeffery Archer? Hahahahahaha.

He was a dodgy mcfuck of the highest order.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/archer/0,2759,180881,00.html

Ha, what a fucking eejit...

[D_Raay]

The plot is thicker I see....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4169557.stm

Last year, a close friend of Sir Mark, former SAS officer Simon Mann, was found guilty of illegally buying weapons in Zimbabwe, which were allegedly intended to be used in the Equatorial Guinea coup plot.

A further 14 men were found guilty in Equatorial Guinea of being involved in the alleged plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled Africa's third-largest oil producer for the past 25 years.

Nick du Toit was jailed for 34 years, while opposition leader Severo Moto, who is in exile in Spain, was given 63 years in absentia.

Both men escaped the death penalty demanded by the prosecution. Officials there have said they will seek Sir Mark's extradition from South Africa to face charges there.

Equatorial Guinea alleges Sir Mark and other mainly British financiers worked with African mercenaries and six Armenian pilots in a takeover attempt foiled in March.

Sir Mark is expected to return to the US to be with his family after Thursday's court hearing.

[D_Raay]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11937682%255E1702,00.html

Mark Thatcher leaves South Africa

MARK Thatcher left South Africa today after pleading guilty in a Cape Town court to charges linked to an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a move which ended travel restrictions imposed on him.

Local photographers saw the son of British former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who had to surrender his passport and remain in Cape Town after his arrest on August 25, go through immigration at Cape Town's international airport.

Thatcher's lawyers were unavailable for comment but he arrived at the airport just before a scheduled flight for London.

His mother in a statement released in London expressed her "delight" at the deal which freed her son's movements. Thatcher's Texan-born wife and two children are in the United States.

Earlier in the day, the 51-year-old businessman, was fined three million rand (about $658,000) and given a four-year suspended prison term after the plea bargain in which he admitted to an unwitting role in the alleged putsch plot.

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So, if I try to topple a foreign government, all I have to do is admit it and they will let me go free?

[Whois]

So, if I try to topple a foreign government, all I have to do is admit it and they will let me go free?

Having Thatcher as a last name helps I suppose...

[Ace42]

So, if I try to topple a foreign government, all I have to do is admit it and they will let me go free?

works for Bush

[Ali]

So, if I try to topple a foreign government, all I have to do is admit it and they will let me go free?

Slap on the wrist.

That coup would have cost millions of lives and caused untold misery, all so that a few greedy swine could get richer.

Thatcher should be sent to Equatorial Guinea and sentenced there.

I see Jack Straw's been implicated, and Jeffery Archer!

Just who is covering up most for whom is difficult to say, but Her Majesty’s government certainly has questions to answer over its role. In an admission that can be viewed either as shameless or astonishingly honest, the British government said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Minister for Africa Chris Mullin knew of the coup plot a year ago but did little to nip it in the bud. That is no great surprise to foreign correspondents in Africa who know that British missions throughout the continent are riddled with intelligence operatives who, when rumbled, tend to say something like: “Look, old chap, rather you’d keep it under your hat, what?”

But the admissions about Straw and Mullin do raise huge questions as to the extent of the British government’s knowledge about Thatcher and others in the coup attempt.

The suspected plotters include former Scots Guards and SAS officer Simon Mann, who has previously carried out mercenary work for the British government in Sierra Leone; London-based Lebanese oil tycoon Eli Calil; and London accountant Greg Wales. In an application through the London High Court for a civil action against the alleged plotters, the Equatorial Guinea government has also named Tory peer and novelist Jeffrey Archer and European Union Commissioner Peter Mandelson as men they would like to question.

But, in a wry comment on the extent of the cooperation offered by the British government to Equatorial Guinea, a lawyer working for the African state said: “The British have given us, in the old saying, every possible assistance short of actual help.” http://www.sundayherald.com/47183

[discopants]

Having Thatcher as a last name helps I suppose...


Not in Britain it fucking well doesn't.

I might be doing an exam question on her later today- think: monetarism, unemployment, Thatcherism- stick with it.
There are rumours that she was always dead of course, and a man.

[D_Raay]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/equatorialguinea/story/0,15013,1394507,00.html

Troubles deepened for Lady Thatcher's disgraced son last night when a self-confessed coup plotter surfaced to accuse him of direct involvement in the attempt to overthrow the regime in Equatorial Guinea.

Crause Steyl, the mercenary pilot who was to have been the star witness against Mark Thatcher had his trial in South Africa gone ahead, told Channel 4 News that Sir Mark's role had been kept secret, because "his mother was the previous prime minister of England".

Mr Steyl described meeting Sir Mark to select a helicopter on which a gun could be mounted.

He also alleged that the Spanish government appeared to acquiesce in the plot.

When asked: "Does Mark Thatcher's story that he knew nothing about the chopper being used in the coup attempt stack up?" Mr Steyl replied: "No it doesn't ... as far as I'm concerned not."
Quick! We need another distraction. Get Harry to dress up as a priest molesting a child!