Equatorial Guinea: Briton Admits Involvement In Coup Plot 

Simon Mann, a Briton who is in prison awaiting trial for plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, has confessed involvement in the conspiracy.  

The ex-SAS officer said he was not the “main man” behind the plans to overthrow the West African nation's government in 2004.  

Speaking to a television station, Channel 4 News, from an Equatorial Guinea prison, the old Etonian said he had been “stupid”.  

The Revelation 

The station has just overturned a court injunction banning broadcast of the interview.  

Mann, 55, was interviewed at the Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea.  

He told the news station that he had to “carry the can”. In his words, “I blame myself most for simply not saying 'cut' two months before we were arrested.” 

He explained further that “that's what I should have done, and there I was bloody stupid. Mea culpa (my fault).”  

Mann was jailed in Zimbabwe on arms charges in 2004, and rearrested after his release last May.  

He was recently extradited from Zimbabwe in February without the knowledge of his lawyers. During the interview, he described his extradition as an "illegal violent abduction".  

 

BBC/AOA/ Qasim