Zimbabwe jails Briton in coup plot case

A Zimbabwe court jailed British former special services officer Simon Mann for a total of seven years yesterday in a high-profile case linked to an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

Mann, 51, who attended Britain's elite Eton College before joining the SAS (Special Air Services), sat silently and sombrely in court while the sentence was read out.

The court handed down 16-month sentences to the two pilots of a plane that landed in Zimbabwe carrying dozens of suspected mercenaries in March. The 65 men who were on the plane were convicted of immigration offences and given 12-month sentences.

Defence lawyers said they would not appeal the sentences. Harare magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe said Mann would serve four years in jail for attempting to purchase dangerous weapons and three more for trying to buy them without a licence.