Coventry Four
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Four South African alleged arms smugglers were arrested by HM Customs & Excise officers in Coventry in March 1984 and charged with conspiring to export arms from Britain to apartheid South Africa in contravention of the mandatory UN Security Council arms embargo. They became known as the Coventry Four.
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[edit] Four plus one
The Coventry Four were:
- Hendrik Jacobus Botha;
- Stephanus Johannes de Jager;
- William Randolph Metelerkamp, a consultant with South African missile manufacturer Kentron; and,
- Jacobus Le Grange, a Kentron research engineer.
A fifth man, professor Johannes Cloete of Stellenbosch University – a key player in South Africa's missile development program – was arrested at the same time as the Coventry Four. But, according to The Guardian of December 17, 1988,[1]Cloete's arrest was quickly followed by his release without charge on instructions from senior Whitehall officials.
[edit] Due process
Having appeared before Coventry Magistrates Court, the Coventry Four were remanded in custody and their passports confiscated. But, after an alleged intervention from Downing Street, the Coventry Four were granted £200,000 bail in May 1984 and were allowed by a Judge sitting in Chambers to get their passports back and to return to South Africa, on condition that they undertook to return to Britain for their trial.
[edit] Controversial visit
In June 1984, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher controversially invited South Africa's president P.W. Botha and foreign minister Pik Botha to a meeting at Chequers in an effort to stave off growing international pressure for the imposition of economic sanctions against South Africa, where both the U.S. and Britain had invested heavily. Although not officially on the meeting's agenda, the Coventry Four affair clouded both the proceedings at Chequers and Britain's bilateral diplomatic relations with South Africa.
[edit] Quid pro quo
In August 1984, when anti-apartheid activists – threatened with arrest in South Africa – took refuge in the British consulate in Durban, Pik Botha decided to retaliate by refusing to allow the Coventry Four to return to Britain for their trial. The £200,000 bail money was thus forfeited by South Africa.
[edit] Re-surfacing
The Coventry Four affair re-surfaced on December 7, 1988 when The Guardian published a letter – critical of Mrs Thatcher – from British diplomat Patrick Haseldine. The letter, which The Guardian headed The double standards on terrorism, appeared in print 14 days before the December 21, 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Haseldine would later blame South African "state-sponsored terrorism" for the outrage (see Alternative theories into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103).
[edit] References
- Coventry Evening Standard, March 31, 1984 reporting the arrest and detention of the Coventry Four
- The Guardian, December 7, 1988 The double standards on terrorism
- The Guardian, December 13, 1988 Letter from lawyer, Geoffrey Bindman
- The Guardian, December 17, 1988 "Fifth man" professor identified in South African weapons ring
