Nick du Toit
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Servaas Nicolaas "Niek" du Toit is a former South African arms dealer, former mercenary and former colonel of 32 Battalion and the 5th Reconnaissance Commando. He was implicated in the plot to overthrow Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea.[1]
He went on trial in Malabo along with 18 other men accused of being the advance party for 70 other mercenaries. The prosecution asked for the death penalty but when all were found guilty, jail sentences were handed out with du Toit receiving 34 years (to be served in Malabo's notorious Black Beach prison).
His job in the coup d'état was reportedly to supply the mercenaries with arms including AK47s, RPGs, PK machine guns, and mortars, and to secure the control tower at the Malabo airport and change the frequency to establish communication with the incoming plane from Zimbabwe carrying more mercenaries. After his capture, he appeared on South African television announcing the failure of the coup and the names of co-conspirators. Niek Du Toit served five years and eight months of a 34-year sentence in a 5ft by 7ft (150cm x 210cm) cell and had been tortured, beaten, starved and kept for much of the time in solitary confinement. The were burned with cigarettes, beaten with the stumps of AK47's, hung upside down and beaten, contracted Malaria multiple times and was refused treatment, amongst many tortures endures by the 18 men. Of the 18 men in EG only 4 of them returned live. Simon Man had bribed the prison guards to fetch food from the hotel across the street, claiming it was good enough for his co-conspirators but did not suit his delicate pallet, he even had a treadmill installed in his prison cell while Niek and the others were handcuffed to the beds and beaten if they tried to move.[citation needed]
He was given a presidential pardon by Equatorial Guinea's dictator ruler, President Obiang, on 3 November 2009, and was released, along with Sergio Fernando Patricio Cardoso, Jose Passocas Domingos and Georges Olympic Nunez Alerson.[1] Simon Mann was also released and was back in England by 6 November 2009.
Du Toit has since retired as a career soldier and is currently working in vehicle sales in Yemen. [2]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Brief curriculum vitae for Nick du Toit
- ↑ McVeigh, Tracy. "Ex-mercenary Nick du Toit tells of his five years in a 'living hell' and why he is ashamed of war", The Guardian, 13 June 2010. Retrieved on 3 November 2015.
External links
- "My Friend, the Mercenary From Hell" by Noah Shachtman, 25 April 2008
- BBC News article on the verdicts handed to the coup force, BBC Online, 26 November 2004
- "No 'buy recommendation' for a book about a former mercenary" by Dr. Alexander von Paleske, Nachrichten Heute, 2 August 2010
- "A Coup for a Mountain of Wonga"
- Boeremag brothers convicted in Pretoria, South Africa on charges of high treason, Silobreaker.com article on convictions of Andre and Mike du Toit, 27 July 2012
- Interview with Tracy McVeigh, The Observer online, 12 June 2010
- Articles with unsourced statements from August 2012
- History of Equatorial Guinea
- Living people
- White South African people
- Afrikaner people
- Recipients of Equatoguinean presidential pardons
- South African Army personnel
- South African military personnel of the Border War
- South African people of Huguenot descent
- Place of birth missing (living people)
- Year of birth missing (living people)
- South African mercenaries
