Solicitor faces probe in Equatorial Guinea case

A SOLICITOR from the UK could today have to explain to Guernsey's Court of Appeal his conduct during the prosecution in Zimbabwe of former SAS soldier Simon Mann. Mann was jailed for seven years in 2004 for illegally buying arms, allegedly to carry out a coup in Equatorial Guinea.

His sentence has since been reduced to four years.

During a Court of Appeal case in Guernsey yesterday, Richard Southwell QC, presiding, questioned why in months of hearings lawyer Henry Page had not answered allegations by Mann that his confession was signed under duress while awaiting trial.

'There was a man who was facing the death penalty and a man acting for the government goes into his cell to take a statement,' said Mr Southwell.

'What on earth Mr Page thought he was doing I do not know.'

Mr Page, a UK and Wales-registered solicitor, was in court yesterday to hear Mr Southwell question his professional conduct and why he had not taken up an opportunity to defend himself against the allegations.

In a sworn statement read to the court, Mann claimed that he was 'distressed and vulnerable' when Mr Page, Equatorial Guinea attorney-general Jose Olo Obono ' also in court ' and the country's unnamed minister for home affairs interviewed him.

This was without Mann's lawyer being present and he had endured days of torture and been shown an aeroplane that was ready to fly him from Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea, he claimed.

The only rebuttal of the allegations so far has come from the oil-rich state's president, Teodoro Obiang, which said: 'Terrorism is an evil which strikes at the roots of a civilised society'.

Advocate Nick Barnes, representing Systems Design Ltd and Logo Ltd, two accounts held in Guernsey at the Royal Bank of Scotland International, also read out letters from Amnesty International and the International Association.

The letters supported concerns about the way the trial was conducted and the treatment of Mann and Nick du Toit, who is currently serving a 34-year sentence in Equatorial Guinea after being found guilty of leading the coup plot.

The conduct of the Equatorial Guinea government was also questioned when the bench asked how London newspaper The Evening Standard obtained details of one of the accounts last year.

It published details of payments made in and out of the accounts, one with the reference J. H. Archer ' which it claimed was made by former Tory peer Jeffrey Archer.

David Vaughan QC asked how the paper had got hold of the information, because some details had been supplied to the Equatorial Guinea government by the bank.

He said that somebody could be in contempt of court for disclosing the information to the media and that 'no doubt we will find out from Mr Page's affidavit'.

'On my part, it's of an extremely serious nature if this document were leaked to the press by the plaintiffs or by someone on their behalf,' said Mr Vaughan.

Mr Southwell added that if the allegation were true, Mr Page would have 'some explaining to do' and that the UK Law Society would have a great interest in hearing about it.

The appeal was due to continue today, with the country's advocate, Alan Merrien, yet to give its side of the argument.

*The attempt by Equatorial Guinea to find out who bankrolled the alleged coup plot started in April last year.

Although given in-principle permission to obtain the details from RBSI for details of both bank accounts, Advocate Nick Barnes has so far successfully blocked this by successive staying orders.

The alleged coup has been in the news for months, partly because of Sir Mark Thatcher, who last month pleading guilty to breaking South Africa's anti-mercenary laws by agreeing to finance a helicopter.

He denied that it was to be used in the plot and was released on bail after agreeing a plea bargain.