Another Blue slip!

[John & Hai Yan]

Apparently GZ isn't the only place offering Blue Slips!

 

 

Mark Thatcher Says He Was Denied U.S. Visa

 

Sun Apr 3, 9:41 AM ET World - Reuters

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Mark Thatcher said Sunday he was refused a visa to enter the United States because of his conviction in South Africa related to a failed coup plot.

 

AFP/File Photo

 

The son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher pleaded guilty in January in a court in Cape Town to a role in a mercenary plot to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. He was given a four-year suspended sentence and a $500,000 fine in a plea bargain.

 

The 51-year-old had been hoping to join his American-born wife Diane, and his two children, who have been living in the United States.

 

He said in a statement to the BBC: "It is quite true that my visa application has been rejected. It was always a calculated risk when I plea-bargained in South Africa.

 

"As a result of this decision, I shall make the family home in Europe, not the UK, and my family will be joining me as soon as arrangements are made.

 

"But the children will continue to be educated in America."

 

Thatcher, who lived in South Africa for eight years, appeared in court in October last year charged with breaking South Africa's anti-mercenary laws by agreeing to charter a helicopter for the coup, for which he paid $275,000.

 

Equatorial Guinea later sentenced 11 foreigners to between 14 and 34 years in jail, and two of its own citizens to 16 months, for their roles in the plot to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

 

The trial was denounced as "grossly unfair" by UK-based human rights group Amnesty International.

 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ain_thatcher_dc