Jailed mercenary tells yard detectives of 'coup meetings' at Calil's London home

Mercenary Simon Mann has been interviewed in prison in Equatorial Guinea by Scotland Yard detectives investigating the failed attempt to overthrow the oil-rich country’s government.

The former SAS officer is understood to have ‘co-operated very fully’ and last week gave a lengthy statement to the officers, who are probing claims that the abortive coup d’etat was financed and planned from Britain.

In it, he details the alleged involvement in the murky affair of Ely Calil, the reclusive London-based Lebanese oil tycoon, and Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher.

Sources said the tiny West African state has also handed over ‘bundles of evidence, the majority relating to Mr Calil’, that its own agencies gathered before Mann’s trial in July.

It raises the prospect of Mr Calil, named in court as the ‘mastermind’ behind the conspiracy, and Sir Mark, who was described as part of the ‘management team’, being arrested during the inquiry, which is codenamed Operation Antara and is being conducted by the Metropolitan Police’s SO15 Counter Terrorism Command.

In particular, the officers are said to be focusing on Mann’s claim – which he first made during an interview with this newspaper and later repeated in court – that a series of meetings about the coup were held at Mr Calil’s London home.

Their investigation is being conducted under the auspices of the Terrorism Act 2006, which created a new crime of planning acts of terrorism, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Both Mr Calil and Sir Mark strenuously deny any involvement in the coup, although Mr Calil acknowledged in July that he financed plans by Severo Moto, the opposition leader living in exile in Spain, to return to his country.

New allegations: Ely Calil and Sir Mark Thatcher could be arrested in Scotland Yard's coup investigation

Mr Calil also admitted that Mann and his mercenaries were hired to provide military assistance to Mr Moto.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said its officers had made two visits to Equatorial Guinea following Mann’s trial. ‘We are investigating whether any offence was committed in the UK,’ she said.

Mann, 56, an Old Etonian, was jailed for 34 years for attempting to oust President Obiang in the 2004 coup. Carlos Mangue, head of the three-judge panel, ordered Jose Olo Obano, the country’s Attorney-General, to bring Sir Mark and Mr Calil to justice.

The SO15 detectives held meetings with Mr Obano and Equatorial Guinea’s National Security Minister Manuel Nguema Mba during their first visit between July 28 and August 3.

Mann led more than 60 predominantly South African mercenaries in a plan to seize control of the country by replacing President Obiang with Mr Moto.

Prosecutors claimed during his trial that the head of the operation was Mr Calil, a friend of former Labour Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson, while Sir Mark was allegedly in charge of its ‘administration’, providing a helicopter and £13,000 cash.

In his testimony, Mann contradicted Sir Mark’s repeated claims that he knew nothing about the plot. Mann said that he was recruited by Sir Mark, who allegedly took him to London to be vetted by Mr Calil. Mann said Sir Mark was not just an investor but was ‘on board completely and became part of the management team’.

Scotland Yard launched Operation Antara in spring 2004, shortly after the plot was uncovered, following a formal request from Equatorial Guinea – described as ‘the new Kuwait’ because of its vast oil and gas reserves.

The request that the Met should investigate ‘the involvement of British citizens’ in the plot and the claim that it was largely planned and financed from Britain was passed to Scotland Yard via the Foreign Office and Home Office.