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.