Accused British mercenary admits weapons bid

A former captain in the SAS, accused by Zimbabwe of leading 70 suspected mercenaries in a coup plot against Equatorial Guinea today admitted attempting to possess dangerous weapons and faces ten years in prison.

Father-of-six Simon Mann, the son of a former English cricket captain, appeared in a special court in Harare’s top security prison where he also entered a limited guilty plea to a second charge of purchasing weapons but said the the deal never went through.