South Africa court dismisses Equatorial Guinea coup plot charges News
South Africa court dismisses Equatorial Guinea coup plot charges

[JURIST] A South African court Friday dismissed charges against eight South African mercenaries suspected of plotting a coup [BBC backgrounder] against the president of Equatorial Guinea [JURIST news archive]. The Pretoria judge found that the state had not proven its case against the men. Lawyers for the defendants argued that South African officials were behind the failed plot, but the South African government denied any involvement. The eight men were arrested in 2004 in Zimbabwe for allegedly purchasing weapons in preparation for a coup against Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang Nguema [BBC profile], who assumed power himself through a coup in 1979.

In 2004, over 60 other mercenaries involved in the plot were tried and sentenced [JURIST report] in Zimbabwe, most receiving one year jail sentences. The alleged coup leader, British national Simon Mann [BBC profile], received a four-year prison term in Zimbabwe for buying weapons without a license. In 2005, Sir Mark Thatcher [BBC profile], son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, pleaded guilty to charges related to the failed coup and was fined [JURIST reports]. BBC News has more. South Africa's Mail & Guardian has local coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.