A South African mercenary was today found guilty of leading the advance party in a failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea that was allegedly bankrolled by Sir Mark Thatcher.

Nick du Toit had been threatened with the death penalty, but instead was sentenced by an Equatorial Guinea court to serve 34 years in one of the harshest prisons in Africa.

The court's decision to show clemency could help the oil-rich West African state in its request to extradite Sir Mark, the 51-year-old son of Baroness Thatcher, from South Africa.

South Africa was thought unlikely to agree so long as it was feared that SIr Mark might face the death penalty in Equatorial Guinea if convicted.

Today 19 shackled defendants listened in a chandelier-hung courtroom in a converted conference center as Judge Salvador Ondo Nkumu read out verdicts and sentences. He said the court would make no comment on its verdicts.

The bulk of Equatorial Guinea’s suspicions are based on a confession by Mr du Toit, a South African arms dealer, describing the roles of other plotters in South Africa. He withdrew the confession this month claiming it was obtained under duress.

The court sentenced four other South Africans who prosecutors said were mercenaries to 17 years each in prison. Three South Africans were acquitted.

Three Armenian pilots who, according to the Government, were hired to fly in gunmen and military equipment received 24 years each in prison, and three other Armenians were sentenced to 14 years each.

Five Equatorial Guinea citizens accused in the alleged plot received more leniency. Two received 16 month sentences, and the charges against three were dropped.

A number of defendants were sentenced in their absence. Severo Moto, an Opposition leader in exile for whom prosecutors had also requested the death penalty, was sentenced in absentia to 63 years. Mr Moto, who lives in Spain, denies all involvement in the plot.

Eight other opposition figures also living in exile were sentenced to 52 years each.

Defence lawyers said they would appeal against the conviction.

Equatorial Guinea alleges that Sir Mark and other British financiers commissioned the bid to overthrow the 25-year-old regime of President Teodoro Obiang and install Mr Moto as the figurehead leader of Africa’s third largest oil producer.

Sir Mark separately faces charges in South Africa in connection with the alleged conspiracy.

He and all others named by the Equatorial Guinea government in bankrolling the coup deny any involvement.

The verdicts brought no reaction in the courtroom, filled with family members of the defendants. Defendants - in leg irons, handcuffs and chains since their arrests in March in the alleged coup plot - rattled out of the courtroom after the verdict was read.

Equatorial Guinea has a poor human rights records. The US State Department and others accuse it of routinely using torture. The International Bar Association has questioned the independence of the court system, accusing Mr Obiang of interfering in trials.

Several mercenaries said earlier in court they had been tortured, with at least one showing scars to the courtroom, but this was denied by the Equatorial Guinea authorities.

Today, Sir Mark was due in court in South Africa after being subpoenaed by Equatorial Guinea prosecutors to answer questions about his role in the coup, but a Cape Town magistrate postponed that hearing until February 18.

Sir Mark was arrested in South Africa on August 25 under South Africa's strict laws against mercenary activities, and is due to go on trial in April.

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