Former mercenary Simon Mann released in Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea has offered a full pardon to former mercenary Simon Mann for his alleged involvement in a failed coup plot in the West African country. Mann’s family have said they were delighted with the decision.

Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said that a full pardon based on humanitarian reasons was given to the 57-year-old Mann along with four colleagues from South Africa who were also involved in the incident.

The need to be with his family along with ongoing need to be given regular medical treatment was cited as the reasons for the release in an official statement. Mann had previously been sentenced to 34 years in prison for his part in the coup attempt to oust Mbasogo.

Mann, a former SAS mercenary, was accused of being the mastermind of the coup which saw Sir Mark Thatcher entangled in the allegations. He was sentenced to the new term in 2008 after having already served three years in a Zimbabwean jail following his arrest in 2004 in the capital Harare along with dozens of other mercenaries.

The tiny oil rich nation alleged that Mann and his colleagues had travelled to Zimbabwe to collect weapons which they were supposedly going to use in a coup. The ex-soldiers however claimed that they were in fact travelling to the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide security for diamond mines. Mann was extradited to the West African country but maintained he was never the plots mastermind.

Mann will be released from prison in the coming days and will be allowed up to 24 hours to leave. The decision coincides with a visit to Equatorial Guinea by Jacob Zuma, the South African President.