Operation Antara

[Eye in the Sky]

Mercenary Simon Mann has been interviewed in prison in Equatorial
Guinea by Scotland Yard detectives investigating the failed attempt to
overthrow the oil-rich country’s government.

The former SAS officer is understood to have ‘co-operated very fully’
and last week gave a lengthy statement to the officers, who are
probing claims that the abortive coup d’etat was financed and planned
from Britain.

In it, he details the alleged involvement in the murky affair of Ely
Calil, the reclusive London-based Lebanese oil tycoon, and Sir Mark
Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher,
who was arrested by South African police for contravening its Foreign
Military Assistance Act.
Later, after plea-bargaining, Sir Mark admitted breaking South African
anti-mercenary legislation by agreeing to buy a helicopter for
£140,000.
He was fined £265,000 and received a four-year suspended jail sentence
but still maintained that he knew nothing about the plot. He said he
believed that the helicopter was going to be used as an air-ambulance.
After leaving South Africa in 2005, Sir Mark returned to London to
stay with his mother but is now believed to be living in a luxurious
rented mountainside villa above San Pedro de Alcantara on Spain’s
Costa del Sol.

Sources said the tiny West African state has also handed over ‘bundles
of evidence, the majority relating to Mr Calil’, that its own agencies
gathered before Mann’s trial in July.
It raises the prospect of Mr Calil, named in court as the ‘mastermind’
behind the conspiracy, and Sir Mark, who was described as part of the
‘management team’, being arrested during the inquiry, which is
codenamed Operation Antara and is being conducted by the Metropolitan
Police’s SO15 Counter Terrorism Command.

In particular, the officers are said to be focusing on Mann’s claim –
which he first made during an interview with this newspaper and later
repeated in court – that a series of meetings about the coup were held
at Mr Calil’s London home.

Their investigation is being conducted under the auspices of the
Terrorism Act 2006, which created a new crime of planning acts of
terrorism, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Scotland Yard launched Operation Antara in spring 2004, shortly after
the plot was uncovered, following a formal request from Equatorial
Guinea – described as ‘the new Kuwait’ because of its vast oil and gas
reserves.
The request that the Met should investigate ‘the involvement of
British citizens’ in the plot and the claim that it was largely
planned and financed from Britain was passed to Scotland Yard via the
Foreign Office and Home Office.

Both Mr Calil and Sir Mark strenuously deny any involvement in the
coup, although Mr Calil acknowledged in July that he financed plans by
Severo Moto, the opposition leader living in exile in Spain, to return
to his country.


New allegations: Ely Calil and Sir Mark Thatcher could be arrested in
Scotland Yard's coup investigation

Mr Calil also admitted that Mann and his mercenaries were hired to
provide military assistance to Mr Moto.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said its officers had made two visits to
Equatorial Guinea following Mann’s trial. ‘We are investigating
whether any offence was committed in the UK,’ she said.

Mann, 56, an Old Etonian, was jailed for 34 years for attempting to
oust President Obiang in the 2004 coup. Carlos Mangue, head of the
three-judge panel, ordered Jose Olo Obano, the country’s Attorney-
General, to bring Sir Mark and Mr Calil to justice.

The SO15 detectives held meetings with Mr Obano and Equatorial
Guinea’s National Security Minister Manuel Nguema Mba during their
first visit between July 28 and August 3.

Mann led more than 60 predominantly South African mercenaries in a
plan to seize control of the country by replacing President Obiang
with Mr Moto.

Prosecutors claimed during his trial that the head of the operation
was Mr Calil, a friend of former Labour Cabinet Minister Peter
Mandelson, while Sir Mark was allegedly in charge of its
‘administration’, providing a helicopter and £13,000 cash.

In his testimony, Mann contradicted Sir Mark’s repeated claims that he
knew nothing about the plot. Mann said that he was recruited by Sir
Mark, who allegedly took him to London to be vetted by Mr Calil. Mann
said Sir Mark was not just an investor but was ‘on board completely
and became part of the management team’.

According to Equatorial Guinea, Mann was never its prime concern. Mr
Obono said that the ‘big prize’ was, and still is, the ‘capture of Ely
Calil and Mark Thatcher’.
He added: ‘We will do whatever it takes to bring them here. We are
very determined.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1028261/Scotland-Yard-terror-squad-probes-coup-plot.html