By Gordon Bell
South African lawyers acting for Mark Thatcher will meet on Tuesday to discuss a request from Equatorial Guinea to question their client on suspicion that he helped finance a coup plot in the oil-rich country.
Thatcher's lawyer Peter Hodes said he still needed to look into the legal implications of such an interview, and would not be drawn on when he may meet investigators from Equatorial Guinea, who are already in the country.
"It is very difficult for me to say before I have even looked at whether they can do this interview under the Act, so I will be going into the whole legal issue," Hodes said in Cape Town.
The 51-year-old son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was arrested in Cape Town on August 25 on suspicion of contravening the Foreign Military Assistance Act, which outlaws civilian South African involvement in military activity outside its borders.
He is suspected of involvement in what police say was a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer.
Thatcher has denied any involvement in the plot, which news reports say has also prompted investigators to look at a number of wealthy people in London.
He has posted R2-million bail and is under orders to remain in the Cape Town area pending a November 25 court appearance.
South African Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla on Monday approved a request from Equatorial Guinea to put questions to Thatcher. Sources said on Tuesday the visiting investigators were going to Cape Town to try to speed up the process.
The questions are expected to be submitted to a magistrate in Cape Town who would then subpoena Thatcher to answer them.
Equatorial Guinea, which would be allowed to observe the proceedings, has said it hopes to extradite Thatcher to face charges along with 14 other suspected foreign mercenaries already on trial in Malabo.
Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has accused foreign nations and firms of trying to remove him. He has ruled the tiny state sandwiched between Gabon and Cameroon since seizing power in 1979.
A court in Zimbabwe in August convicted Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer and friend of Thatcher, on weapons charges. He had been held in Harare in connection with the suspected coup plot.