Mark Thatcher pleads "Guilty"

[nonconformist]

www.bbc.co.uk]Thatcher[/url] 'guilty plea' over coup
Mark Thatcher
Sir Mark was 'furious' at being barred from leaving South Africa.
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 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 South African court.

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 Equatorial Guinea.

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

A BBC correspondent says Sir Mark is expected to receive a suspended sentence and a fine of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This is quite nice. Arms dealer Mark is guilty. Though he's getting too light a sentence for my liking....

 

[privatehudson]

Shame they're not going to lock him up and throw away the key.

 

[nonconformist]

Shame they're not going to lock him up and throw away the key.

How true........it's ridiculous how people get bail for being high profile....Pinochet just got bail today.

 

[Mr. Do]

Well, at least Mark didn't play the, "oh, I'm ill, yes, cough, cough, ahem" card that other people in his situation tend to...

 

[amadeus]

He has to stay in South Africa. That's punishment enough.

 

[privatehudson]

Somehow fining him a tiny fraction of what he made through arms deals sweetened by his Mother doesn't seem like a fair price to pay to me.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

Am I the only one who thought Margaret Thatcher before clicking on this thread based solely on the title?

 

[privatehudson]

I wished it had been her

 

[DBear]

Am I the only one who thought Margaret Thatcher before clicking on this thread based solely on the title?

That's why this is a troll thread and should be closed.

 

[Jawz II]

dropbear, how is this a troll thread, when the title obviously says, "Mark" and not "Margaret", you can read, no?

 

[Iggy]

This is quite nice. Arms dealer Mark is guilty. Though he's getting too light a sentence for my liking....

The joys of plea barganing I suppose. It sounds like he had no choice really. What a silly boy.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

dropbear, how is this a troll thread, when the title obviously says, "Mark" and not "Margaret", you can read, no?

The title's been edited.

 

[Jawz II]

Ahhhh sooo
still, it mightve been misleading, but troll thread?

drop a chillpill dbear

 

[dvandyke]

Lucky for him that he is a wealthy white member of the British establishment. A black African would be boiled alive with a spear up his rear.

 

[samildanach]

The joys of plea barganing I suppose. It sounds like he had no choice really. What a silly boy.

Mann was clearly at it. Leaving a huge paper trail like he did. ( I am assuming intelligence here, where in fact it may be absent. Mann was ostensibly a friend of Marks after all )

Thatcher really had no choice IMO. Accept the plea bargain and presumably sell some of his ex-colleagues down the river. Or take a bullet for people who may have actually set the whole thing up in order to blackmail him and others.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

When the attempted coup story first broke, the headlines all said "Thatcher Coup Attempt fails", and, well, let's just say that I didn't think it was about Mark.

Anyway, unfortunate that it didn't work out. He would have governed that area far better than whoever is running it now.

 

[Scuffer]

He certainly would be better than Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of Equatorial Guinea...

...Unfortunately, Obiang now leads one of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and anti-democratic states in the world, according to most domestic and international observers. Equatorial Guinea is now essentially a single-party state, dominated by the President's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE). All but two members of the 100-seat national parliament belong to the PDGE or are aligned with it. The opposition is severely hampered by the lack of a free press as a vehicle for their views.

Obiang was re-elected in December 2002. His government was slammed by the international community for running an election which was widely considered to be unfair and that was also boycotted by most of the opposition.

In July 2003, state-operated radio declared that the president is a God who is "in permanent contact with the Almighty" and can "kill anyone without being called to account." Equatorial Guinea is perhaps the only country in the world to have all of its presidents to date declared God...

 

[privatehudson]

Doesn't mean he'd actually be any good

 

[Scuffer]

No, but he hasn't declared himself as God just yet either.

 

[privatehudson]

Oh well that makes him the perfect replacement then