Seychelles coup mercenary Duffy dies |08 August 2017

South African mercenary Peter Duffy who was involved in a failed coup plot in Seychelles on November 25, 1981 has died of a suspected heart attack while sitting on a bench outside a shopping centre in the coastal city of Durban, South Africa's News24 site reported yesterday.

Duffy, who later worked as a photographer for a prominent South African newspaper, had become a recluse before his death last week, it added.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in Seychelles for his role in the failed attempt to overthrow France Albert René's government.

The report claimed South Africa's then-apartheid regime was behind the coup plot, and later brokered a deal to secure the release of Duffy and other plotters.

Duffy died before the release on August 17 of a book about his life titled Ricochets, written by author and journalist Graham Linscott.

Linscott describes the book as a "romp" and not a serious book, because while it deals with some serious topics, it is told very much in Duffy's humorous and mischievous style.

In the foreword, Linscott describes Duffy, who was born in Scotland into relative wealth, as an eccentric adventurer. He was a coffee planter in Tanganyika, took up karate in Japan, acted as a film stunt man, and served as mercenary in the Congo, invading the Seychelles islands and hijacking a plane to escape.

When he wanted a "quieter life" he took up news photography, working mainly for the Daily News and Sunday Tribune in Durban.

In October 2016 in Mumbai, Duffy met Captain Umesh Saxena, the pilot of the Air India plane that Duffy and his fellow mercenaries had hijacked from Seychelles on the day of the failed coup.