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Coup plotter Mann released from Equatorial Guinea jail
Kazakhstan News.Net
Tuesday 3rd November, 2009
A former British soldier who had been in jail in Equatorial Guinea for his part in a coup plot, has been released on humanitarian grounds related to his health.
Simon Mann, 57, had been sentenced to 34 years in prison, but was pardoned on Tuesday.
It is expected Mann will soon fly into Britain where he will be asked to explain his part in the
conspiracy to oust Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
In March 2004, police in Zimbabwe stormed a plane that had arrived from South Africa, arresting Mann and 63 other men on board.
Amid suspicions the men were mercenaries plotting to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea president, Mann was forced to spend four years in a Zimbabwean jail before being extradited to Equatorial Guinea where he was then tried and convicted.
While Mann admitted to his part, he told the court at trial he had only been a minor player.
During the trial, Mann implicated London-based Lebanese millionaire Ely Calil and Sir Mark Thatcher, son of UK former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, saying they had an involvement in the failed coup.
Sir Mark, who now lives in Spain, was fined and received a suspended sentence in South Africa in 2005 for unknowingly helping to finance the plot.  Email this story to a friend
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