7 years for 'mercenaries leader'
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- A court in Zimbabwe has sentenced a British man accused of leading a group of mercenaries plotting to topple the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea to seven years in jail.
Simon Mann, a former pupil of Britain's elite Eton College and ex-member of the UK's SAS special forces, was found guilty last month of attempting to illegally purchase weapons that prosecutors said were to be used in the coup in the West African country.
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe handed down the sentence Friday in a makeshift court at a Harare maximum-security prison where Mann, 51, and other accused mercenaries had been detained since their March 7 arrest.
He showed no emotion during sentencing, The Associated Press reported.
The case has also implicated Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher, a neighbor and friend of Mann's in a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, is accused of helping to finance the alleged plot.
Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe made no reference to the alleged coup plot on Friday.
Mann had earlier admitted trying to order assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from a Zimbabwean arms company -- an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Sixty-five other suspected mercenaries also on the plane that landed at Harare to allegedly pick up weapons in March were sentenced to 12 months in jail Friday after being convicted of immigration offences. The two pilots were given 16-month jail sentences.
Two men were released last month without charge.
The court ordered the seizure of the Boeing 727 airliner and $180,000 found on board that could have been used to buy weapons.
"I am devastated. I can't believe it. They have already done six months and with this sentence it is now 18 months," a weeping Marge Pain, whose husband was a passenger on the plane, told Reuters. Other relatives of the defendants wept as the ruling was handed down.
Governments accused
Thatcher was subpoenaed this week to appear before magistrates in the city to answer questions put by Equatorial Guinean authorities.
He is also due in court on November 25 over charges that he violated South Africa's anti-mercenary laws. He denies all charges against him.
Equatorial Guinea has accused foreign governments and companies of trying to oust President Teodoro Obiang and install their own leader, Severo Moto, who is currently in exile in Spain.
Authorities there have put more than a dozen people on trial over the alleged plot. One other defendant died in custody under suspicious circumstances.
One of the defendants in that case has testified that Thatcher met Mann -- who founded two security firms involved in mercenary activity across Africa in the 1990s -- in July 2003.
Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer, said Thatcher expressed interest in buying military helicopters for a mining enterprise in Sudan, but described the meeting as a "normal business deal" unrelated to the alleged coup plot.
The defendants in the trial in Zimbabwe -- South Africans, Namibians, Angolans, Congolese, a Zimbabwean and Mann, a UK national -- denied plotting to oust Obiang. They maintained they were traveling to guard mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo when they were detained.
Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Ministry said the group's aircraft was carrying military equipment when it was impounded at Harare.
Items displayed for reporters included camouflage uniforms, an inflatable dinghy, portable radios and tools such as bolt cutters, but there was no indication that the aircraft carried any weapons.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
