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Local law enforcement sources were sceptical, yet cautious yesterday about a report alleging a Russian mafia plot to kidnap Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Sir Mark is currently on the Rock amid speculation that authorities in Equatorial Guinea will issue an international warrant for his arrest in connection with a failed coup in 2004. In a further twist to an already bizarre tale, a specialist US newsletter claimed the British secret intelligence agency MI6 had warned Sir Mark that a powerful Russian criminal organisation had offered to kidnap him and take him...

MADRID, April 20 (Reuters) - Exiled Equatorial Guinean politician Severo Moto, who lives in Spain, has disappeared and Spanish authorities are concerned he may have been killed, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Wednesday. Moto is the leader of a self-styled government in exile and a sworn enemy of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has accused Moto of being behind a coup attempt in the tiny central African country last year. El Pais and another newspaper, El Mundo, both reported Moto had travelled from Spain to Croatia twice in March, and that since his second trip...

THE FAILED coup attempt involving Sir Mark Thatcher was to have made Equatorial Guinea a private colony run for the benefit of the British plotters, leaked documents reveal. The papers, passed to The Sunday Times by South African intelligence sources, reveal that the plotters had created a trading company to control the oil-rich West African state. The Bight of Benin Company (BBC), named after the bay on the state’s coastline, was to have grabbed control of the country’s economy, its oil reserves, army and police. The company would have controlled the country as a private fiefdom, modelled on the...

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...

Sir Mark Thatcher has pleaded guilty in South Africa over his part in an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. The son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was fined three million rand (£265,000) and received a four-year suspended jail sentence. Sir Mark, who denies any knowledge of the plot, agreed a plea bargain with prosecutors. He admitted breaking anti-mercenary legislation in South Africa by agreeing to finance a helicopter. It has been reported the businessman said he did not know the helicopter's alleged purpose - that it was to be used in the coup attempt, instead believing it...

Sir Mark Thatcher is to plead guilty in to bankrolling an attempted coup in Equatorial New Guinea, say reports. He is expected to be given a five year suspended sentence and a £300,000 fine. More follows...

Mark Thatcher urged to accept a plea bargain - By Jane Flanagan in Johannesburg (Filed: 26/12/2004) Sir Mark Thatcher is under growing pressure from his friends to negotiate a plea bargain with South African authorities over his alleged involvement in a plan to topple the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. The Telegraph has learnt that Sir Mark's supporters are urging him to admit to lesser charges, that would not carry a jail sentence, and allow him to move on. A quick trial would allow Sir Mark to rebuild his damaged business and personal life. It would also allow him to...

Sir Mark Thatcher has been included on a new list of nine suspects being linked to an alleged plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea. The nation's attorney general, Jose Olo Obono, denied earlier reports that they would be tried in their absence. Last month, Sir Mark appeared in court in Cape Town as his lawyers argued against an order forcing him to answer questions about a suspected coup plot. Lady Thatcher's son denies knowledge of, or involvement in, any plot. Mr Obono said Equatorial Guinea may try at a later stage to extradite all the people it is...

If you think this one's bad you should have seen his uncle - By Anthony Daniels (Filed: 29/08/2004) There is no leader in the world who more deserves to be overthrown than Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of Equatorial Guinea for the last quarter of a century. By rights, his brutality, corruption and venality should not go unpunished; yet I doubt that the mercenaries who planned to overthrow him, and whom Sir Mark Thatcher is accused of having backed financially, were motivated by a burning ambition to bring democracy and clean government to the volcanoes of Fernando Poo and...

Luanda - Equatorial Guinea will guarantee not to seek the death penalty if it decides to request the extradition of Margaret Thatcher's son in connection with a suspected coup plot, its state prosecutor said on Saturday. South Africa will not extradite to countries that could apply the death penalty, but Jose Olo Obono told Reuters by telephone from the capital Malabo that this would not be an obstacle. Mark Thatcher, 51-year-old son of the former British prime minister, was arrested in South Africa on August 25 on suspicion of helping to finance an alleged plot for which foreigners have...

'Coup plotters' face their alleged torturers as Thatcher family quits - By Katharine Houreld in Malabo and Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg (Filed: 31/08/2004) Eight men accused of plotting to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's government confronted their alleged torturers yesterday in a court in the capital, Malabo. Angered by the judge's decision to read statements the men say were made under duress, one South African defendant, Sergio Cordoso, said: "This is the first time I have seen a person questioned and taken to the torture room at the same time." Mark Thatcher: accused He added: "I want to emphasise the person who...