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Joy over pardon of coup plot SAS man (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Joy over pardon of coup plot SAS man
7:00pm Tuesday 3rd November 2009
THE family of New Forest mercenary Simon Mann have told of their delight after he was granted a full pardon for his part in a failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
Former British soldier Mr Mann, 57, was sentenced to a 34-year jail term after admitting conspiring to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, leader of the tiny West African country.
A statement released by the Mann family read: “The family is absolutely delighted that Simon has been pardoned and is to be released shortly.”
The statement continued: “The whole family is overjoyed at the prospect of finally welcoming Simon home after five-and-a-half long years away.”
Mr Mann, from Beaulieu, was granted the full pardon on humanitarian grounds.
He had been held in the notorious Black Beach prison and was expected to be released last night to return to the UK.
The former SAS officer was accused of masterminding an operation to oust President Obiang.
He was arrested with around 70 other people, mostly former soldiers, when their aircraft arrived at an airport in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, in March 2004.
The plan was to put opposition leader Severo Moto, who is exiled in Madrid, in power and gain control over the country’s oil wealth, it was claimed.
At first Mr Mann denied that the group had come to collect weapons for a coup.
His lawyers claimed they were on their way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure diamond mines.
He was jailed for seven years in Zimbabwe for conspiring to buy weapons of war.
Mr Mann said he suffered a violent abduction in February from Chikrubi prison in Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea.
He has always insisted that he was not the main man behind the plot.
Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of the former Prime Minister, was given a suspended sentence in South Africa in relation to the funding of the operation, though he denied any knowledge that a coup was being plotted.
Sir Mark released a statement today which read: “I am delighted that Simon will be reunited with his family at last.”
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