Equatorial Guinea plot case

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea — A British ex-military officer faces 30 years in prison if convicted of masterminding a failed coup plot in the oil-rich Central African nation of Equatorial Guinea, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Attorney General Jose Olo Obono said the charges against accused mercenary Simon Mann merit the death penalty — but an extradition agreement prohibits it.

Mann, 55, is accused of attempting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang, a longtime dictator who seized power in a 1979 coup. Prosecutors allege that Mann was the ringleader of a coup plot financed by Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Two other charges against Mann include "attempting to overthrow the government" and "destabilizing the peace," Obono said. A verdict was expected Thursday.

Mann was arrested in 2004 when his plane landed in Harare, Zimbabwe, with 70 other alleged mercenaries to collect weapons purchased from Zimbabwe's state arms manufacturer.
He has given different explanations, saying he and his team were hired to be bodyguards for a new president — not to overthrow Obiang's government. Mann also has said the weapons were to be used under a contract with Congo-based JFPI Corporation, to guard the holding company's diamond mines in Kasai-Oriental province.

Mann was extradited to the Spanish-speaking African nation in January from Zimbabwe, where he had already served about four years in prison.

Security was tight as his trial opened Tuesday, with dozens of soldiers deployed and snipers positioned on rooftops. Mann sat calmly in the courtroom, wearing glasses and dressed in a gray prison uniform.

On the eve of the trial, Obiang had told Britain's Channel 4 News that he did not rule out the death penalty, but said the court "will determine what kind of punishment" Mann should face if convicted.

Obono told The Associated Press earlier that the country's justice system will "demonstrate through Simon Mann's own statements, the level of participation of each of the people implicated in this affair, which was orchestrated from beginning to end by Simon Mann."

Government-appointed defense attorney Jose Pablo Nvo said he was working for Mann "first, to not have a death sentence, and then to stay the least time possible in prison."

Equatorial Guinea alleges that Mark Thatcher commissioned the attempt to overthrow Obiang and install exiled opposition leader Severo Moto. In April, a Spanish court ordered Moto jailed without bail on suspicion of trying to send arms to the African country.

Thatcher pleaded guilty in a South African court several years ago to unwittingly helping bankroll a 2004 coup plot. He was fined and given a suspended sentence.

South African arms dealer Nick Du Toit was sentenced to 34 years in prison in a trial in Equatorial Guinea.

Rights group Amnesty International has said past trials were flawed and impartial, with detainees allegedly tortured in jail and the prosecution offering defendants bribes to incriminate others.

Obiang's tightly controlled country commands enormous oil reserves — it is Africa's third biggest oil producer — but many of its people remain impoverished. The tiny nation also is considered among the continent's worst violators of human rights.