Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's son was planning to leave South Africa before his arrest on suspicion of involvement in a coup attempt in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.
Mark Thatcher is escorted by police into the Wynberg Magistrate's Court in Cape Town yesterday.
Mr Sipho Ngwema, police spokesman for unit that arrested Mark Thatcher on Wednesday, said the businessman (51) had recently put his luxurious Cape Town house up for sale and was "winding up" other aspects of his life in the country.
"It looks as if he was planning to leave the country for good," he said.
A Cape Town court on Wednesday put Mr Thatcher, who has protested his innocence, under what amounts to house arrest until he pays a two million rand bank guarantee.
He was also required to surrender his passports and report in daily to police pending another court appearance on November 25th.
Mr Ngwema said police decided to move against Thatcher on Wednesday after he failed to respond quickly enough to a police request for information upon returning to South Africa from a trip to the United States several weeks ago.
"We wanted to make sure we arrested him before he left the country," he said.
Thatcher, who was not asked to enter a plea on Wednesday, issued a statement saying he had done nothing wrong. "I have no involvement in any alleged coup in Equatorial Guinea and I reject all suggestions to the contrary," his statement said.
South African police said they believed Mr Thatcher helped to bankroll what officials have called a mercenary plot to topple the president of Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil producer.