2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt five calls to Sir Mark Thatcher in the days after the failed coup. On 13 January 2005, Mark Thatcher, in a South African court, pleaded guilty to helping finance a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. South African police were able to prove that Mr Thatcher had transferred about US$285,000 to the mercenaries that were to execute the operation and had met and talked frequently to them prior to the coup attempt. After pleading guilty, he was given a four-year suspended sentence and a fine of about US$560,000. Simon Mann paid $500,000 (£281,000) towards the plot, according to a list of
2002 Equatorial Guinean presidential election 2002 Equatorial Guinean presidential election A presidential election was held in Equatorial Guinea on 15 December 2002. Incumbent President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo easily won another term; the opposition boycotted the election. The four opposition candidates withdrew their candidacy on the day of the election. The first opposition candidate to withdraw was Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) candidate Celestino Bonifacio Bacalé. He denounced the election, saying that "voting is totally fraudulent at every level. In 90% of the polling stations, the vote is being carried out in public, and people are being obliged to take only one voting slip, the