VI. The “Wonga Coup” Attempt of 2004

As discussed above, there have been some 12 reported coup attempts in Equatorial Guinea since 1979, some real and some imaginary. The most widely reported coup attempt—and one that was evidently real—occurred in March 2004 and was nicknamed the “Wonga coup.”[314] It involved the arrest on March 7 of UK national Simon Mann and 69 others at Harare International Airport, Zimbabwe, on board a Boeing 727-100 in the process of taking on a shipment of arms, and the arrest on March 8 of South African Nick du Toit and 14 others in Malabo.[315] It extended to an international cast of characters including key members of the defunct South African private military firm Executive Outcomes, exiled opposition leader Severo Moto, and Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Equatorial Guinean government claims Mann and Du Toit were part of an operation intended to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea and replace President Obiang with the exiled Severo Moto (apparently his second attempt to foment an armed coup in Equatorial Guinea).[316] The full picture of who was sponsoring and going to benefit from the coup attempt is difficult to establish.[317] But according to Nick du Toit in an October 2004 signed statement, “This whole thing is about money. Oil was the motivation behind the attempted coup.”[318] The episode appears to demonstrate that, with oil as the motivation, Equatorial Guinea’s lack of democracy, development, and due process provided an unstable context in which undemocratic efforts to achieve regime change became attractive.

An individual who was supposed to have been on the Harare Boeing flight and who was interviewed by Human Rights Watch claims he had full prior knowledge that an Equatorial Guinea coup attempt was planned.[319]  A second individual admitted to Human Rights Watch that he had been very involved from Spain in the early planning stages of a coup for Moto in Equatorial Guinea but dropped out once “the Brits got involved and complicated things.”[320] A third individual, who was detained in connection with the coup attempt but later released, also told Human Rights Watch that he had been told they were going on a mission to enact “assisted regime change” in an undisclosed African country, but he did not know which country until on the flight to Zimbabwe.[321]

This plot was also already being monitored by a number of governments who had obtained intelligence about the coup attempt during its final planning stages. South African and Angolan intelligence had subsequently informed Harare and Malabo prior to the March 7, 2004 landing of the Boeing flight in Harare.[322]

The most reliable information comes from a South African court trial. In 2006 eight South Africans suspected of involvement in the coup were put on trial at the Pretoria Regional Court in South Africa on charges of breaking the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act.[323] The eight were part of the group of seventy people who were arrested in Zimbabwe on March 7, 2004, and subsequently jailed (see below).[324] Sixty-one were released in May 2005 by Zimbabwean authorities and returned to South Africa, where the National Prosecuting Authority sought to prosecute nine of them;[325] the authorities said they could not attempt to prosecute the others as they did not have enough evidence.[326] Details of how the alleged coup was originally to be staged were revealed at the Pretoria Regional Court: Equatorial Guinea’s President Obiang was to have been lured to the airport with the promise of new 4x4 vehicles, and then overpowered and flown out of the country, replaced by Severo Moto.[327]

On February 23, 2007, Magistrate Peel Johnson, sitting in the Pretoria Regional Court, threw the case out after a number of state witnesses claimed the attempted coup was sanctioned by the South African, British, Spanish, and US governments. The magistrate ruled there was credible evidence by the state’s witnesses that the South African government sanctioned the coup, or that the accused were under the impression that it was sanctioned. The Pretoria magistrate found that the state had not proved its case against the men, and that while the actions of the men were unlawful, he could not find by “any stretch of the imagination” that they had knowingly contravened the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act. The director general of the South African secret service, Hilton Dennis, admitted that he knew of the plot but did not sanction it.[328] Explaining why he allowed the men to fly out of South Africa, he said, “There are many ways to kill a cat. We chose this route and succeeded in preventing the coup.”[329]

Lebanese-British businessman Ely Calil, subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the Equatorial Guinean government and tried in absentia (see below), denied any involvement in a coup attempt but admitted he had funded Severo Moto and supported “democratic change” in Equatorial Guinea. He said there had been a scheme to fly Moto to Equatorial Guinea and protect him for a few days, while people rose up in support of him.[330]

Severo Moto, who lives in exile in Spain, had his political refugee status revoked by the Spanish government on December 30, 2005 (it had first been given to him in 1986). The move was announced by Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega ” following confirmation” of Moto’s role in “different attempted coups d’etat” against the government of Equatorial Guinea.[331]However, in March 2008 the Spanish Supreme Court reversed the government’s decision and reinstated Moto’s refugee status.

However, Moto was arrested by the Spanish authorities on April 14, 2008, and accused of being involved in arms trafficking to Equatorial Guinea. Moto was accused of having purchased some light weapons, which his associates tried to smuggle in a car destined for Equatorial Guinea but which were later found in the eastern Spanish port of Sagunto in mid-March 2008.[332]

Severo Moto was allowed to leave jail in July 2008 after paying US$14,500 bail. The decision to free Moto on bail was made by a new judge in charge of the case. Although the Spanish police and prosecution services claim to have collected sufficient evidence, the small number of weapons and the lack of sophistication cast doubts on the threat posed to the Equatoguinean government. In September 2008 Moto admitted in an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph that he had hired British mercenary Simon Mann in 2004 to assist him in bringing “democracy” to Equatorial Guinea through a coup.[333]

Trials for the Coup Attempt Seriously Flawed

Trials related to the coup attempt ensued in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea. Unlike the trial in South Africa, due process in both countries had significant flaws.

Simon Mann was convicted on August 27, 2004, of attempting to purchase $80,300 worth of munitions from the Zimbabwe state arms company in contravention of the Zimbabwe Firearms Act. He was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, subsequently reduced to four years’ on appeal.[334] A lower Zimbabwean court convicted 64 of the people arrested with him of relatively minor immigration offenses after prosecutors failed to prove more serious weapons and coup conspiracy charges.

The trial of Nick du Toit, 13 other foreign nationals (seven South Africans and six Armenians), and five Equatorial Guineans began in Malabo on August 23, 2004, before three civilian judges (before the start of the trial defendant Gehard Merz, a German citizen, died at Black Beach prison in Malabo on March 17, 2004—see below).[335] On August 31 the prosecution asked for the indefinite suspension of the trial because the prosecution hoped to obtain more information on Mark Thatcher, but this was not forthcoming. On November 16 the trial resumed when the prosecutor general presented cases in absentia against Severo Moto and his exile government, Ely Calil, British businessman Gregory Wales, and nine other men, all members of the Partido del Progreso de Guinea Ecuatorial living in exile in Spain. On November 26, three South Africans and three Equatoguineans were acquitted,[336] while the other defendants were convicted of an attempt to commit crimes against the head of state and against the government. They received sentences of between 16 months and 62 years—given to Severo Moto. Du Toit received 34 years.[337] Those tried in absentia have remained abroad and have not returned to Equatorial Guinea.

Observers from the International Bar Association and Amnesty International concluded that the trial was highly flawed, especially due to serious procedural failings and allegations that torture was used to extract statements.[338] Amnesty International delegates noted that during both the pretrial stage and the court hearing itself there were serious procedural irregularities in the application of Equatorial Guinea law and a flagrant disregard for regional and international human rights law and standards. President Obiang pardoned the six convicted Armenians in June 2005 on “humanitarian grounds” after intense lobbying by the Armenian government and others. On June 4, 2006, South African national Marious Gerhardus Boonzaier “Bone” was also pardoned by President Obiang on humanitarian grounds because he needed critical medical treatment (the local authorities for months prior to this announcement had refused to acknowledge the seriousness of his condition).

Human Rights Watch has interviewed one of these former prisoners, who described how he was kept in handcuffs all the time, and for the first 10 days beaten regularly and tortured during interrogation, such as by having a flame held to the sole of a foot or being beaten while given food.[339] A number of confessions appear to have been extracted after torture or following other forms of coercion such as death threats. Another former detainee, Abel Augusto, interviewed for a book about the Wonga coup, said that Gehard Merz had died from trauma from torture. Abel Augusto said Merz enraged the interrogators, because “[w]hen they hit him, he never said a word.”[340] This provoked more severe battering, and finally he was dumped back in a cell where fellow prisoners called for medical help but were ignored. Gehard Merz died from a heart attack.[341]

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in July 2007 also interviewed four South Africans accused as mercenaries and was told that they had been severely tortured while in pretrial detention. The Working Group observed they were forced to wear leg irons and had marks from the torture they had suffered on their legs, hands, and feet.[342]

Lawyers associated with the case have also suffered. In July 2005 the Bar Association of Equatorial Guinea suspended the lawyer Fabian Nsue Nguema and a colleague from his law firm from practice for one year, after Nsue Nguema defended the South African mercenaries involved in the March 2004 coup attempt and continued to represent them. Nsue Nguema received no prior notice of what the allegations were that led to his suspension. Nor was he given the opportunity to defend himself against any allegations.[343] The ban was imposed following government pressure after Nsue Nguema had requested to visit the five jailed South African mercenaries (a request that was rejected in April 2005 by the Supreme Court) and because of his routine criticism of the government, particularly on human rights.[344]

The confessions made by the detainees in Equatorial Guinea in 2004 were clearly suspect, as were several statements made in Zimbabwe, which Mann claims were made only following torture and duress. Henry Page, the British lawyer who worked for the Equatorial Guinean government, has been criticised by Mann’s lawyer in Zimbabwe for putting his client under enormous pressure to confess and name financiers to be prosecuted in a civil case in the United Kingdom. A Guernsey court also expressed its concern about the validity of evidence provided by Henry Page on behalf of the government of Equatorial Guinea.[345]

Simon Mann was due to be released from Zimbabwe’s Chikurubi maximum security prison in May 2007 due to good behavior. However, the Equatorial Guinean government sought his extradition in order to try him, promising to provide an independent judge selected by the African Union and to not apply the death penalty if Mann was convicted of leading the coup plot. During an extradition hearing in late April 2007, the Zimbabwean authorities refused to issue a visa for former Equatorial Guinean citizen Weja Chicampo (he was given Spanish citizenship after being extradited by Malabo—his extradition is discussed in the previous chapter) to testify on behalf of Mann’s defense team about how he had been treated while jailed at Black Beach. The defense team opposed the extradition, arguing that it would be a violation of Zimbabwe’s legal obligations under various international and African human rights treaties.[346] Simon Mann was finally extradited by Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea in February 2008 and placed in Black Beach prison.[347]

During his four-day trial in Malabo in early 2008, Simon Mann implicated the governments of South Africa and Spain and implied that the United States would have looked favourably on a coup. He also claimed Ely Calil masterminded the coup using funds from Mark Thatcher and that Equatorial Guinean officials were also involved. He confirmed that the coup attempt was rushed in advance of Spanish elections in 2004, and that one plan was to have had local officials come out in support of the arrival of Severo Moto.[348] Mark Thatcher admitted to South African prosecutors to having provided funding for an aircraft, but said that he had not knowingly supported a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.

On July 7, 2008, Simon Mann was sentenced to 34 years in prison and was ordered to pay compensation to the Equatorial Guinea state totalling around $24 million.[349]

On trial alongside Mann were Lebanese businessman Mohamed Salaam and seven Equatorial Guinean nationals, all of whom had been arrested In March and April 2008. Salaam was convicted of the same charges as Mann and received an 18-year prison sentence. The Equatorial Guinean nationals were convicted on charges of illegal association, being members of the PPGE and holding meetings in early 2006, and possession of arms and ammunition. Five of the six were sentenced to six years each, and the sixth to one year. One Equatorial Guinean defendant was acquitted.[350]

The Equatorial Guineans had been held in detention without charge for about three months before finally being informed of the allegations against them. Their statements were taken by the prosecutor in the presence of the minister of national security, but without any legal representation. There are also reports that some of the defendants were beaten while in police custody and not given access to their families or to a lawyer until five days before the trial.

According to Amnesty International, the defendants were forced to sign statements they had not made. In court, the Equatorial Guineans retracted their statements on the basis that they were made under duress and torture. However, the court did not examine the allegations of coercion and allowed the statements to be admitted as evidence. Furthermore, in the summing up at the end of the trial the attorney general requested an additional 20 years to be added to their sentences for failing to collaborate with the administration of justice by stating in court that they had been forced to sign statements under duress.”[351]

Crackdown on Foreigners

It appears that the coup attempt coincided and may have contributed to a purge of foreigners in Equatorial Guinea. Two weeks preceding this coup in March 2004, and for weeks after, the authorities cracked down on foreigners.[352] Up to 1,000 African nationals, mainly Cameroonians, were deported during the eight weeks after the coup attempt, and Cameroon withdrew its ambassador in protest.[353] Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of Ghanaians and Nigerians who had been deported from Equatorial Guinea during this purge. Several women claimed they were raped and that local Equatorial Guineans who were not police officers were allowed to arrest people suspected of being illegal residents.[354] Many were forcibly deported without due process or being allowed to exercise their right to appeal.[355]

A small number of oil workers were also arbitrarily detained and assaulted, such as the representative of the Angolan state oil company SONANGOL.[356]

Equatorial Guinea’s attorney general also issued a warning that the coup plotters “are commandos, they are more highly trained than an ordinary military officer ... they were going to come to Equatorial Guinea under the effects of drugs, and so they were not going to have pity on anyone. Therefore, as attorney general, I call on the population to be vigilant with foreigners, regardless of color, because the target is the wealth of Equatorial Guinea, the oil.”[357]