Mercenary leader jailed for seven years

British mercenary leader Simon Mann, a neighbour of Mark Thatcher, was jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe today for conspiring to buy weapons of war.

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 dictatorial president.

The two pilots of a cargo 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 sentenced Mann, 51, in the makeshift court inside the Chikurubi maximum security prison near Harare.

Mann showed no emotion as the sentence was read out.

From special forces commander to soldier of fortune, Simon Mann’s colourful career reads like a thriller.

Born to a world of wealth and privilege, he made his own fortune in some of Africa’s bloodiest wars – and even enjoyed a stint in the movies.

He was jailed today for his connection with a bizarre plot to overthrow a dictator in a tiny African backwater – a case that has also ensnared Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

For Mann, it has been a stunning downfall.

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 - access to the offshore oil of Africa’s third-biggest oil producer.

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

Mann appeared bespectacled and bedraggled, dressed in prison-issue khaki shirt and shorts – a far cry from the debonair adventurer described by acquaintances.

His lawyers claimed he had been denied adequate food and clothing, and some of Mann’s 69 co-accused have allegedly been beaten at the maximum security Chikurubi prison, where he is likely to serve out his sentence for trying to buy arms from Zimbabwe’s state arms manufacturer.

Mann, the son of former England cricket captain George Mann and heir to the Watney brewing fortune, graduated from elite Eton College and Sandhurst military academy.

The 51-year-old father of six went on to a distinguished military career which reportedly included service in Cyprus, Central America, Germany and Northern Ireland.

He left the military in the 1980s, returning only briefly to work with British commander General Peter de la Billiere during the Gulf War.

From there, Mann drifted into security work, providing bodyguards to wealthy clients.

In the early 1990s, he helped set up Executive Outcomes and later Sandline International, two security consultancies that recruited among former South African military forces who found themselves out of work after apartheid ended in 1994.

Executive Outcomes earned millions from the Angolan government by guarding oil installations against rebel attacks, while Sandline is believed to have participated in Sierra Leone’s bloody civil war.

Mann also had a detour in the limelight, taking a small role as a British officer in the 2002 film Bloody Sunday about the conflict in Northern Ireland.

During this period, Mann took up residence in the plush Cape Town suburb of Constantia, where his neighbours include Mark Thatcher, and Earl Spencer, brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Last month, South African authorities arrested Thatcher and charged him with helping to finance the botched Equatorial Guinea plot, an accusation he denies.

One of Mann’s former associates at Executive Outcomes, Nick du Toit, is now on trial for his life in the west African nation, where he has admitted plotting to overthrow Nguema, who seized power himself in a 1979 coup.

Mann and his co-accused, most of whom were arrested when their ageing Boeing 727 landed at Harare International Airport on March 7, denied they were preparing to launch a coup.

They claimed they were headed to security jobs at a mining installation in eastern Congo.

Mann admitted trying to buy assault rifles, grenades, anti-tank rocket launchers and other weapons from Zimbabwe Defence Industries – an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.