The former Prime Minister's son will have to remain in his Cape Town home until he stumps up bail of 175 thousand pounds. He's then due back in court in November.
According to allegations from the government of Equatorial Guinea, Sir Mark was part of a complex conspiracy, taking in rich financiers, mercenaries and politicians-in-exile.
Mark Thatcher was still padding around in his pyjamas when the South African Police knocked on the door of his thatched mansion in an affluent neighbourhood at seven this morning.
Witnesses said he appeared shocked at the intrusion. Under house arrest, he watched as detectives rifled through his belongings.
As he was driven away to Wyneberg Magristrates court, the police revealed the charges.
Thatcher stands accused of violating South Africa's tough anti-mercenary law, in which it is illegal to recruit South African citizens as hired gunmen. His lawyer said he was accused of paying for a helicopter linked to the planned coup in Equatorial Guinea.
The coup Thatcher is alleged to have financed and help mastermind reads like the plot of a Frederick Forsythe thriller. Old Etonians, multinational oil deals, the possible involvement of a former minister in Lady Thatcher's government. Names we can't reveal for legal reasons.
On 7th March a plane landed in Harare. It’s 70 passengers were all apparently mercenaries. The South African police had tipped off their Zimbabwean counterparts
On board, the leader of this supposed bunch of bush war veterans was Simon Mann, The Old Etonian and former SAS officer turned African mercenary lives on the same Cape Town street as the former Prime Minister's son. They're said to be good friends.
In fact in a letter Channel 4 News has obtained that Mann wrote to his wife in prison, he asked her to get hold of people with major clout to help get him out. He refers to "Scratcher"... believed to be rhyming slang for Thatcher.
Mann claims the charges against him and his co-accused are spurious and that they were actually en route to guard mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But another mercenary, allegedly part of the same coup, has since turned state witness. South African Nick Du Toit and 13 co conspirators were arrested in Equatorial Guinea on March the 9th. His confession named Simon Mann. Mann claims Du Toit has been tortured. Du Toit told journalists he just decided to tell all.
Back in court today he testified that he had met Thatcher with Mann in July last year, but that Thatcher had only been interested in buying military helicopters for a mining enterprise in Sudan.
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