BRITISH mercenary Simon Mann testified in court that Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was an integral member of a plot to topple Equatorial Guinea`s president.
Mr Mann, 55, speaking through a Spanish interpreter on the second day of his trial in the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo, said Mark Thatcher`s role went beyond raising financing for the failed 2004 bid to oust the oil-rich African country`s iron-fisted ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Thatcher was an integral part of the group that planned the coup, Mr Mann said.
Mr Mann said he came in touch with Thatcher when they were neighbours in Cape Town in South Africa.
Thatcher pleaded guilty in 2005 to breaking South Africa`s anti-mercenary laws, where he lived at the time, but avoided prison with a suspended four-year sentence and a three million rand ($625,000) fine.
Equatorial Guinea has already issued an international arrest warrant for Thatcher.
Mr Mann, who faces a 30-year jail term if convicted, was arrested in 2004 at Harare`s international airport with 61 alleged accomplices when their plane touched down en route to Equatorial Guinea.
Zimbabwean authorities accused them of trying to pick up arms before launching their coup attempt.
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