UK – Simon Mann, a convicted mercenary and ex-SAS officer who got prisoned for a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea has died aged 72.
Mann and his 70 mercenaries were arrested in 2004 at the then Harare International Airport enroute to Malabo to carry out a coup against Teodoro Obiang.
Zimbabwe security officers from the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) arrested Mann and his team when they were refuelling and collecting arms bought from the Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) in Harare.
Mann and his friend, Mark Thatcher, the son of the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher plotted the Equatorial Guinea failed coup.
Mann, Mark Thatcher and the late Margaret Thatcher once came to Zimbabwe on holiday. Mann’s memoir shows photographs of such trip.
Mann served at Chikurubi Maximum prison before he was extradited to Equatorial Guinea where he was imprisoned before he was released.
At Harare prison, Simon Mann served his jail term at Chikurubi where he became friends with controversial business man Wicknell Chivayo who was in jail for fraud.
The two later met in the United Kingdom when Mann was released from the jail in Equatorial Guinea.
Obiang was grateful to the late president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe who ordered the arrest of Mann.
The Mugabes and Obiangs maintain strong ties to date with the Equatorial Guinea strong man helping Grace financially, sources have said.