Thatcher friend jailed over mercenary plot

BRITISH mercenary leader Simon Mann, with whom Mark Thatcher is allegedly involved in a coup plot, was jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe yesterday for conspiring to buy weapons.

The Eton and Sandhurst-educated former SAS captain was arrested in Harare as he allegedly prepared to launch a coup against oil rich Equatorial Guinea's dictator.

The two pilots of a plane that landed in Zimbabwe carrying dozens of suspected mercenaries in March were jailed for 16 months. The 65 men who were on the plane, convicted of immigration offences, were given 12-month sentences.

Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe ordered the seizure of the plane, a Boeing 727, and about £150,000 in cash.

While Mann showed no emotion as he was sentenced at a makeshift court inside the Chikurubi maximum security complex, relatives of the other men broke down and cried.

"I am devastated. I can't believe it. They have already done six months and with this sentence it is now 18 months," said a weeping Marge Pain, whose husband was on the plane.

Born to a world of wealth and privilege, Mann made his own fortune in some of Africa's bloodiest wars.

The alleged plot against Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, a despot with reputed cannibalistic tendencies, appeared to carry the promise of vast riches and access to the offshore oil of Africa's third-biggest oil producer.

Instead, Mann suspected of masterminding the coup attempt has faces prison life in a country known for horrific human rights abuses.

His Cape Town neighbour Mark Thatcher son of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret has been arrested and questioned over allegations he helped finance the plot.