A LEGAL action to obtain the names of those who allegedly funded a man accused of planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea has been ‘dressed up’. The Royal Court was asked yesterday to order the release of the names of those who paid money into Simon Mann’s Guernsey bank accounts.

But his lawyer claimed that the information would be used for other purposes.

Advocate Nick Barnes, who is fighting the application on behalf of Mann, currently in prison in Zimbabwe, said: ‘To put it bluntly, these claims have been dressed up as civil proceedings in order to obtain the very information that is needed for criminal proceedings.’

He also said that the court was not the proper channel for a government to be bringing the action. He questioned why it wanted the names.

‘It is putting the authorities in the position of helping a foreign state without using the correct way. The best that my client can do is to say look at the facts.’

Advocate Barnes also asked that the court refrain from ordering the names to be released until more information was known about a pending civil action in the UK court.

National newspaper reports have claimed that disgraced Tory peer Jeffrey Archer could have been involved in the coup plot that led to the arrest of Sir Mark Thatcher in South Africa last month, something he has denied.

It is believed that the Equatorial Guinea government wants to take those it understands bankrolled Mann to the civil courts in order to claim compensation for the extra security forces it has now employed.

Advocate Barnes said it was ‘extraordinary’ that a foreign government was trying to sue individuals in this way.

He suggested following the UK’s lead in waiting until criminal proceedings in Zimbabwe were completed before going ahead with any civil case.

‘This order for disclosure should not be continued at the moment – let’s wait and see what the UK court orders,’ he said.

Advocate Alan Merrien, representing the government of the African state and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, said that certain bank details had already been given to its attorney-general, but that more information was sought.

‘In order to identify the conspirators it is necessary to identify those who paid money into the accounts,’ said Advocate Merrien.

‘No evidence is needed on those in custody but is needed to support proceedings in this plot, starting in England and elsewhere.’

But Advocate Barnes said what had been largely believed to be a conspiracy against the country had yet to be proved.

‘As a consequence of that the foreign government would seek the assistance of the UK government to obtain assistance in proceedings,’ he said.

Lt-Bailiff Chris Day asked Advocate Barnes whether he thought the African state could be using the civil action to launch extradition proceedings against UK residents.

Advocate Barnes said it was a concern, as was the manner in which the Equatorial Guinea government obtained information in support of the application.

He said that the way in which the conspirators appeared to have co-operated with the authorities was also ‘extraordinary’.

An unsigned letter said to have been written by Mr Mann while in high-security prison was highly confidential.

‘Without reading it out, it looks to me like a letter written by someone in prison who needs assistance,’ he said.

Whether or not the island’s courts have jurisdiction to release the information will be discussed further when the case resumes tomorrow morning.