Government knew of coup plans court told
State witness Johannes Smit indicated in the Pretoria Regional Court yesterday that the only reason the accused went ahead with the alleged plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea Government was because the SA Government knew about it and was not opposed to it.
Defence lawyer Alwyn Griebenow was cross-examining Smit, says a report on the IoL site. Griebenow yesterday asked Smit whether the attempted coup would not have been a suicide mission had the government not given permission or its blessing for the mission. Smit answered yes. He told the court that it was highly unlikely that the SA Government did not know about a possibility of a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Another State witness, Nigel Morgan, who is also a private security consultant with a background in the British military, testified that he passed on reports to a source in the foreign intelligence service of the SA Government about the alleged coup. Full report on IoL site