Court angered by 'trial by media' in Guinea case

CONDUCTING a case through the courts and the media is 'wholly inappropriate'. Senior judge David Vaughan QC said during a Guernsey Court of Appeal hearing yesterday that he was unhappy with the way that information had been leaked.

His comments followed publication of details relating to Sir Mark Thatcher and a civil case involving Equatorial Guinea in yesterday's edition of The Times

Richard Southwell QC, who is presiding over the hearing in which the oil-rich state is trying to obtain information about locally held bank accounts, believed to be those of jailed former SAS soldier Simon Mann, agreed.

'I have been a judge here for a number of years and it is unacceptable for a case to be conducted through the courts and the press in any civilised society.

The state is represented by Advocate Alan Merrien, whose late affidavit on behalf of his clients was ordered to be changed before it is sworn officially today.

In an usual move, the court sat until 7pm and then adjourned until 9.15 this morning.

In the statement, only some details of which were read in court, UK solicitor Henry Page answered some of the allegations against him by Mann.

Mr Page denied being present when Mann made a written statement confessing to breaking South African law by buying arms without a licence.

In the lengthy affidavit, which was submitted to the court at 4.40pm, Mr Page answered questions put to his counsel, Advocate Merrien, by the bench on Tuesday.

'There is an attempt to confirm some of the confusion of how he became involved in taking certain statements or some interviews,' said Advocate Merrien.

In the statement, Mr Page said that he did not meet Mann until a month after a date the jailed mercenary gave to his solicitors following his trial.

'It was a month later before he met him ' not to interview him but when he went with a delegation from Equatorial Guinea,' said Advocate Merrien.

Mr Page also denied that either he or his UK law firm, Penningtons, had anything to do with the leak of confidential documents to the Evening Standard last year.

'There has been a great deal of interest in these matters, some said to be reported from all sorts of sources.'

But Mr Vaughan was not satisfied with the response and said that Penningtons must have serious concerns about the leak, which resulted in the newspaper printing details of those linked to the alleged coup in Equatorial Guinea, including former Tory peer Jeffrey Archer.

Why no attempt had been made to find out who was responsible was a worry to the court and that no journalist would reveal a source for fear of prosecution.

'Here was a clear breach and you were in control of this matter as an officer of the court,' Advocate Merrien was told by bench.

'You have done nothing about it, despite the apparent breach by your client.'

Advocate Merrien said that at the time the story broke, Mr Page was 'out of jurisdiction', but this drew a sharp response from Mr Southwell.

'Let him have been in the Sahara Desert ' nothing was done,' he said.

Mr Southwell questioned whether the UK case would have got as far as it had had it been another country that was bringing the civil case in London.

'If you substitute Equatorial Guinea for the US Government, for the president to be saying and claiming emotional distress 'particularly as he has been in power for 30 years and it was not the first coup.'