Mann: A man in need of 'major clout'

MANN being led to a make-shift court in Chikurubi Maximum Prison on Wednesday

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BESPECTACLED, bearded and bound in chains, Simon Mann looks more like a jailed intellectual than a freelance commando leading a team of coup conspirators.

But prosecutors in Zimbabwe see this grizzled Englishman and his colleagues as mercenaries, intercepted on their way to allegedly overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.

If proven, the charges against them could lead to deportation, decades in detention or a possible death sentence.

Mr Mann, a veteran of several wars, is understandably unnerved.

In a letter smuggled out of his prison cell and quoted by British newspapers, the former British soldier says only "major clout" can save him.

He says they would be doomed if they got "into a real trial scenario".

Mr Mann's lawyers say their client and the 69 men arrested with him - mostly South Africans - were on their way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure diamond mines.

They say the guns and ammunition they were trying to buy in Zimbabwe were for that purpose alone, and the coup charge is "laughable", lifted from the pages of an airport thriller.

Action man

Simon Mann's story has the hallmarks of popular fiction. Born into privilege, he was swept up by the pursuit of adventure.

The detained men's families have voiced concern at their conditions

As befits the son of an England cricket captain and the heir to a brewing fortune, he studied at Eton, the exclusive private school favoured by princes and the political elite.

Eton was followed by Sandhurst, the prestigious military academy, and from there it was a natural progression to the Scots Guards, an army regiment associated with royalty and the upper class of British society.

Mr Mann then joined the SAS, the army's special-forces unit, rising swiftly through the ranks to become a commander.

After reportedly serving in Cyprus, Germany, central America and Northern Ireland, he left the military in 1981, returning to its ranks only briefly 10 years later to work for Britain's Gulf War commander, Gen Peter de la Billiere.

Arms and advice

During the 1980s, Mr Mann sold computer security equipment and ran a business providing bodyguards to wealthy clients.

In the early 1990s, he set up Executive Outcomes, a security consultancy, with his associate Tony Buckingham.

Executive Outcomes developed a formidable reputation delivering advice - and armed guards - to protect businesses operating in conflict zones.

The company earned millions from the Angolan government by guarding oil installations against rebel attacks.

In the mid-1990s, Mr Mann entered a partnership with fellow former Scots Guardsman, Tim Spicer.

Sierra Leone rebels spent over a decade fighting the government

They established another private security firm, Sandline International, which was soon being linked to the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Its role in the conflict remains open to speculation.

The firm is believed to have delivered "logistical support", including guns, to the country while it was under a UN arms embargo.

According to Michael Gove of The Times newspaper of London, mercenaries working for Mr Mann helped defeat the rebels led by Foday Sankoh and paved the way for "democratic rule".

'Dirty work'

Those who have known Simon Mann describe him as poker-faced, mysterious and secretive.

Yet he emerged into the limelight in 2002 to play a British officer in a film about the Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland.

The film's director, Paul Greengrass, spoke of him as a "humane man, but an adventurer... very English, a romantic, tremendously good company".

Mr Gove argues that Mr Mann's private security firms "have been scrupulous about operating in concert with Western policy goals while maintaining a discreet distance".

But the Zimbabwean authories holding Mr Mann and his men could take this point further, turning it against them - they have already accused Western intelligence agencies of sending the men to do their dirty work.

Facing a military tribunal in Chikurubi prison in Harare, this former soldier has never needed "major clout" more.
BBC
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