HOWZAT

In parliament Ancram has now questioned Straw about whether in the past 12 months he or his officials had discussions about Equatorial Guinea with Peter Mandelson, now the European Union trade commissioner. Mandelson was an acquaintance of Ely Calil, the alleged chief financier of the coup attempt. However, Calil denies involvement in the plot and Mandelson denies discussing it with him.

This weekend some of the mist over the affair began to lift when the Equatorial Guinea government claimed MI6 had been sent two memos from Smith warning of an impending coup.

Smith had learnt of the coup plot in December last year — three months before it took place. He was apparently tipped off by two former military colleagues who had been hired for the coup.

Smith sent two intelligence briefings saying when the plot would be launched and naming individuals involved, including Angolan mercenaries employed by Nick du Toit, another business partner of Mann, in jail in Equatorial Guinea. Although the memos correctly predict when the coup would be launched, they do not identify the key financiers and former British military figures behind the plot.

The Equatorial Guineans believe that Smith’s warning is what Straw might have been referring to when he admitted to Ancram that Britain had received a “confidential diplomatic exchange” about the plot.

In Equatorial Guinea, Obiang, who has a track record for torture and human rights abuses, is furious that Britain failed to alert his government about the involvement of UK nationals and is said to regard the failure to contact him as tacit support for the failed coup.

“I think the British thought, ‘If there’s a change of regime, no problem’,” said a spokesman for the Equatorial Guinean government. He claimed that Smith’s reports were drawn to the attention of embassy officials. “Both of Johann’s reports were passed to British diplomats,” he said.

Smith confirmed on Friday that he had written the memos and circulated them to members of the international intelligence community but disputed that he had briefed British officials. A friend of Smith said he may have made the statement under duress while he was in Equatorial Guinea.

On Friday a court in Equatorial Guinea found du Toit, a South African former special forces soldier, guilty of his part in the plot to overthrow Obiang and sentenced him to 34 years in prison.

Prosecutors in Equatorial Guinea had sought the death penalty for du Toit, who confessed to leading an advance guard for the abortive coup before retracting his statement, saying he had been tortured.

Four other South Africans and six Armenian aircrew were also given long sentences. One of the alleged plotters has died in jail in suspicious circumstances and human rights campaigners believe the others have slim chances of survival, unless they are allowed to serve time in South Africa under a judicial agreement.

The judge in the du Toit trial said the state should continue to pursue others accused of a role in the plot, including several prominent British nationals.

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