Old Etonian gets seven years for Guinea coup plot
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare and David Blair, Africa Correspondent

The Daily Telegraph/UK
(Filed: 11/09/2004)

Simon Mann, an old Etonian and former SAS officer, stood expressionless
in khaki prison fatigues yesterday as he was sentenced to seven years
in a Zimbabwean jail for trying to buy weapons.

The biggest mercenary trial in Africa’s recent history ended in the
capital Harare with Mann’s 67 accomplices receiving prison sentences
of between 12 and 18 months for immigration and aviation offences. Two
other men were acquitted.

The court reserved its harshest sentence for 51-year-old Mann, who
holds British and South African citizenship.

“The accused [Mann] was the author of the whole transaction,” said
Mishrod Guvamombe, the magistrate, imposing sentence in a makeshift
court inside Harare’s maximum security prison. “He was caught while
trying to take the firearms out of the country.”

Mann had admitted trying to buy weapons valued at more than £100,000
from the state-owned defence company in Zimbabwe.

Prosecutors said the arms would have been used to overthrow the regime
of Equatorial Guinea. Mann and the 69 other men, all South Africans,
were arrested at Harare airport in March, supposedly bound for the
oil-rich West African dictatorship.

They were on board a Boeing 727, valued at about £2 million, which
Mr Guvamombe turned over to the Zimbabwean state.

Explaining his decision to impose a sentence on Mann nearing the
maximum of 10 years laid down in Zimbabwean law, the magistrate said
the offences “were well planned and well executed and that must be
reflected in the penalty”.

Mann’s lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, described the sentence as
“excessive”. But he ruled out an appeal to the supreme court.

Mann is likely to serve his sentence in Chikurubi maximum security
prison, where he has been held since his arrest six months ago.

After serving across the world with the SAS, he helped found Executive
Outcomes, a South African-based mercenary company in 1989. Despite his
experience, his last operation was a bungled and amateurish venture.

Maps of Equatorial Guinea and vital details about the operation were
found on the aircraft. The coup plot had been widely discussed for
months by former members of South Africa’s special forces before it
went into action. Mann and his colleagues were arrested after South
Africa’s intelligence service learned of their plans and alerted
Zimbabwe.

The men he hired for the operation were treated far more leniently. The
court sentenced 65 of them to a year behind bars for breaching aviation
and immigration laws. The remaining two were sentenced to 18 months.

The men testified that Mann agreed to pay them £3,300 each for taking
part in the operation. Mann’s family in Britain has given the men’s
relatives a one-off payment of £550.

Executive Outcomes was wound up in 1999 after South Africa banned
mercenary activity. But Mann remained active in the security business.

He lived in the expensive Cape Town suburb of Constantia, a few
streets away from Sir Mark Thatcher, the former prime minister’s son,
who has also been charged with involvement in the Guinean plot.

Fifteen other men, all South African or Armenian, are still on trial
in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea. One, Nick du Toit,
whose evidence implicated Sir Mark, faces a possible death sentence.