In a closely watched case, British mercenary Simon Mann is being tried in Equatorial Guinea's state court for his role in a failed 2004 coup. He faces a sentence of 32 years behind bars.
 
A former soldier in the British elite military force – Special Air Service - Mann was arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 with 70 mercenaries en route to Equatorial Guinea where he reportedly planned to install an exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto. He was extradited from Zimbabwe to Malabo earlier this year.
 
Moto is currently under arrest in Spain.
 
Mann, heir to a brewing fortune, is identified as a key staffer of Executive Outcomes, a guns-for-hire operation manned mostly by former members of the South African Defense Force, which provided "logistical support" to Angola and to Sierra Leone, including guns, while it was under a UN arms embargo.
 
Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was also named as a conspirator in the abortive plot to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo but in a plea bargain in 2005, he received a suspended sentence and fined.
 
Mr. Obiang himself came to power in 1979 in a coup backed by Moroccan soldiers. Equatorial Guinea has just half a million residents but it is one of Africa’s top oil producers. The trial is expected to last three days.

---

GIN