Thatcher Challenges 'coup' Questioning

Sir Mark Thatcher appeared in court today for a hearing on the legality of Equatorial Guinea's attempts to question him over an alleged coup attempt that he has been charged with helping to finance.

Lawyers for Sir Mark, the son of former British prime minister Lady Thatcher, asked the Cape high court in Cape Town to overturn a subpoena granted by South Africa ordering him to testify under oath to investigators from Equatorial Guinea.

The investigators have 43 questions to ask Sir Mark relating to the prosecution of 19 alleged plotters of a coup to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

In court today, Peter Hodes, for Sir Mark, said the South African government would be assisting Equatorial Guinea in an unfair trial by forcing the 51-year-old businessman to answer those questions.

"What we are dealing with in Equatorial Guinea is a military tribunal, or there is a good possibility that it is," Mr Hodes said.

Sir Mark's defence team contend that it would be unconstitutional to subpoena him to respond to those questions while he has related South African charges pending.

He was arrested in August and charged with violating South Africa's anti-mercenary laws by making payments to Simon Mann, the former British SAS officer who was jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe last month for trying to buy arms for the coup attempt.

Sir Mark's trial on those charges will start in Cape Town on November 25. The offence carries a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.

Today's hearing was expected to last two days.

Among the questions Equatorial Guinea wants to ask Sir Mark is whether his nickname is Scratcher, a name Mann scribbled on a note from his prison cell in Zimbabwe seeking help from friends, and details of his relationship with the former SAS officer.

Sir Mark, who has lived in South Africa since 1995, admits that he and Mann were friends and neighbours in Constantia, a suburb of Cape Town. But he denies being involved in the alleged coup.

The 67 men accused of being Mann's co-conspirators, arrested when their old Boeing 727 landed at Harare international airport in Zimbabwe on March 7, received sentences of 12-16 months for minor immigration and aviation violations. Mann's lawyers said they were on their way to do security work at diamond mines in Congo.