Mann jailed for 34 years over failed coup plot on oil-rich African state

SIMON Mann, a British mercenary, was last night sentenced to 34 years and four months in prison by a court in Equatorial Guinea for his role in a failed 2004 coup plot in the West African state.

The sentencing by the three-judge panel followed Mann's four-day trial in Malabo, the oil-rich nation's capital, last month in which the Eton-educated former Scots Guards and SAS officer pleaded guilty to his part in the conspiracy to topple the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

The sentence is harsher than the 31 years demanded by public prosecutor Olo Obono. Mann was also ordered to pay a fine of about £12 million.

There is a strong chance Mann will serve his sentence in Malabo's notorious Black Beach Prison.

Amnesty International has described jail terms in Black Beach as "slow, lingering death sentences" with prisoners living either on a cup of rice or a bread roll each day.

The worst nightmare for Mann would be if the president's brother, Armengol, Equatorial Guinea's barely-literate head of security, takes charge of his incarceration. The United States' State Department has described Armengol as a torturer.

Placido Mico, an opposition leader, spent time in Malabo in a cell the size of a cupboard, three by 4.5 feet. He said he was let out for one or two minutes a day. "The rest of the time we had to live with urine and excrement and the cockroaches, flies, ants and spiders," he said.

Seeking leniency, Mann apologised during his trial and depicted himself as a pawn of powerful intelligence agencies and international businessmen trying to seize power in Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third-largest oil producer where Nguema has ruled dictatorially since 1979.

Describing himself as a mere "employee," 56-year-old Mann said the real masterminds behind the coup plot were business tycoons, including London-based Lebanese millionaire Eli Calil and Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister. He also said the US, Spanish and South African governments had given covert support to the attempt to overthrow Nguema.

Mann's apparent ready co- operation with state prosecutors has provoked widespread speculation that he might be rewarded by being transferred to Britain, to serve a token sentence.

Prosecutor Obono has admitted that when he visited Mann in prison he offered him a deal which involved signing an affidavit naming the financiers of the coup.

Seven other co-defendants, including a Lebanese businessman, Mohamed Salaam, and six Equatorial Guinean nationals, were also given sentences yesterday of up to 18 years in connection with the coup.

Prosecutor Obono said the next step will be to try to bring to justice Mr Calil and Sir Mark. "That's a job that's ongoing," he said, adding Equatorial Guinea's government had circulated through the international police agency Interpol an arrest request for the two men.

Sir Mark, whom Mann said was "part of the management team" behind the coup, is living in southern Spain, while Mr Calil spends his time between London and Lebanon.

BACKGROUND

EDUCATED at Eton, Simon Mann is a former British Army officer turned mercenary who has already served four years in a Zimbabwean jail after being found guilty of trying to buy weapons for the alleged plot.

Mann is heir to one of Britain's biggest brewing fortunes.

His father, George, captained the England cricket team in the 1940s as his grandfather had in the 1920s.

Mann took a different route. A South African citizen with a home in the wealthy Cape Town neighbourhood of Constantia, he worked with former private military companies Executive Outcomes and Sandline International.

Mann was arrested at Harare airport in March 2004 with a plane-load of weapons and men. In May 2007 a Zimbabwean court ruled that Mann could be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to stand trial for the coup plot, although he fought the ruling on the grounds that it would be a death sentence.

He lost and in January this year he was flown in secret from Harare to the Black Beach jail in Equatorial Guinea.