Thatcher conviction 'was unlikely'

[emad]

By Gordon Bell in Cape Town
February 01, 2005
From: Reuters

SOUTH African prosecutors said today they did not have a strong enough case against Mark Thatcher to guarantee a conviction when they agreed a plea bargain over his suspected involvement in a foiled coup.

The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was handed a suspended four-year sentence and fined three million rand ($652,303) by a South African court on January 13 in a plea bargain with the state.

"The plea bargain was a sensible thing ... we were not confident that we had a case that any judge would convict him," said Makhosini Nkosi, spokesman for the FBI-style Scorpions unit that led the investigation.

Mr Thatcher was arrested at his sprawling Cape Town mansion in August last year and had faced charges of helping to finance a plot to overthrow the government of tiny, but oil-rich, Equatorial Guinea.

http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,12113098-23109,00.html

"did not have a strong enough case": cops' sting-talk for "we know more than we want to say and are now enjoying the squirming as he tries to get a US visa".....?