Alleged kingpin in Guinea coup plot feared killed

[emad]

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Thursday April 21, 2005
The Guardian

Fears were growing last night about the fate of the man at the centre of last year's murky coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, after reports that he had been assasinated.

Investigators in three European countries are looking for Severo Moto, the exiled opposition leader whom the British mercenary Simon Mann and his friend Sir Mark Thatcher last year allegedly planned to make president of the oil-rich west African country.

Mr Moto, who met Mann in the Canary Islands shortly before the botched attempt to overthrow the President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has not been seen for at least 10 days.

Spain's intelligence services were leading the hunt for him, according to Spanish media, amid fears that he had been killed in either Croatia or Italy. Mr Moto's mobile phone was not answered yesterday and its message box was full.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/equatorialguinea/story/0,15013,1464627,00.html

MAYBE he's in Monaco...buying a condo with fellow-exile mark Thatcher?????

[emad]

1. From today's Independent:

Exiled leader of Equatorial Guinea coup plot goes missing
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
21 April 2005


Severo Moto, the exiled opposition leader of Equatorial Guinea who was to have been installed as President by coup plotters, has been missing for a week amid fears for his life, according to Spanish authorities.

"We are working intensively and with deep concern to establish the whereabouts of Mr Moto ... we don't know where he is. There are all sorts of rumours, but so far we have no evidence to confirm any of them," said Bernardino Leon, Spain's state secretary for foreign affairs.

But Spanish press reports quoted a government source yesterday as saying that reports they had received "lead us increasingly to the conviction that he has been killed."

Mr Moto has political asylum in Spain where he leads a self-styled government in exile. He is a fierce opponent of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who accuses Mr Moto of being behind a coup attempt in the oil-rich west African country in March last year.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=631586

[DulceDecorum]

2. Oh dear,

did our poor wickle Severo Moto lose his testicles?

[dArKeR]

3. Another "David Kelly" assassination by Blair!

David Kelly
http://www.moderateindependent.com/v1i7Kelley.htm

[daleo]

4. Dead men tell no tales.

This guy could probably embarrass some important players in the BFEE.