Obiang to testify?

Equatoguinean dictator Teodoro Obiang may be prepared to testify about the failed coup against him last year, according to The Times.

Lawyers for President Obiang told a court in Guernsey last week that he was prepared to give evidence against the British-based businessmen who allegedly plotted a failed coup attempt in the oil-rich West African state.

Simon Mann, the former SAS officer, Eli Calil, the Lebanese millionaire, and Greg Wales, a businessman, all deny involvement in the coup attempt.

Mann, an Old Etonian, is serving a four-year jail sentence in Zimbabwe for buying arms illegally. Sir Mark Thatcher, now living in London with his mother, has paid a £265,000 fine to avoid jail in South Africa after admitting that he helped to buy a helicopter that would have been used to fly opposition leaders into Equatorial Guinea after Mr Obiang was toppled.

I will believe it when I see it personally. As The Times notes, Obiang cold face cross-examination about his own record as one of Africa’s worst dictators.