Mercenary jailed for coup plot

(CNN) -- British mercenary Simon Mann has been jailed for 34 years for his part in plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea.

The former British military officer confessed to trying to topple long-time ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo - but denied being the plot's leader.

The goal of the plot was to install exiled opposition leader Severo Moto who is currently in Spain awaiting trial on charges of arms trafficking, and to gain access to the former Spanish colony's oil wealth.

During the trial, Mann testified he was a "junior" in the organization which plotted to overthrow the tiny west African country's president in 2004, and that Lebanese businessman Eli Calil was the man in charge.

"Eli Calil was known as the cardinal -- the cardinal -- which I think says it all," Mann told the court. Watch Mann's reaction to his sentences »

Footage of the proceedings was broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 News, which says it has the only camera in the courtroom.

As Mann's trial progressed last month, South Africa rejected Mann's allegation that it had given its tacit support for the coup plot.

"South Africa will never, tacitly or expressly, support the use of mercenaries to bring about fundamental political changes in any country in our continent or elsewhere in the world including Equatorial Guinea," the government said in a statement.

Mann testified that several governments, including Spain and the United States, welcomed the idea of a coup.

Mann is a former British army commando who was arrested four years ago after a plane carrying him and about 60 mercenaries landed in Zimbabwe.

The government of Equatorial Guinea said the group was on its way to overthrow its president. Mann said at the time they were going to guard a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A Zimbabwe court convicted Mann of trying to buy weapons illegally. He served four years in jail there before being extradited to Equatorial Guinea's capital of Malabo earlier this year to face charges of leading an abortive coup.

Mann testified that his former friend Mark Thatcher -- the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher -- was a main partner in the plot.

Thatcher was arrested along with Mann in 2004, and he pleaded guilty in South Africa the following year to unwittingly bankrolling the plot. He escaped jail time by paying a fine.

Thatcher admitted giving $275,000 toward the charter of a helicopter, saying he thought was for commercial purposes and discovered only later it was to be used by mercenaries.

But Mann said Thatcher paid $350,000 for a helicopter and a plane which he knew would be used in the plot, and that he attended meetings about the plan with Calil in London.

Calil, Mann said, initially asked him to assassinate President Obiang and talked about the possibility of staging a guerrilla war. Mann testified he refused both requests, considering them unethical, but he did agree to help stage a coup.

Though he said Thatcher was a top figure in the plot, Mann testified that even Thatcher was under Calil in the group's hierarchy.

Mann, appearing in a gray prison outfit, emphasized that he was not the man in charge.

Mann's defense lawyer took 45 minutes to question Mann, Channel 4 reported, in contrast to the four hours of prosecution questioning Mann faced.

Mann smiled often in the footage shown by Channel 4 and even stuck his tongue out playfully at the camera.

After his stint in the British army, Mann was affiliated with the South Africa-based mercenary firm Executive Outcomes. The firm described itself on its now-defunct Web site as a "military advisory service" that had played a "crucial" role in ending two African civil wars.

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