A Malabo court has sentenced British mercenary Simon Mann to 34 years and four months in prison for leading an abortive coup in Equatorial Guinea.
55-year-old Mann was arrested in March 2004 along with 61 other suspected coup plotters when their plane landed in Zimbabwe.
Mann also implicated Mark Thatcher, the son of Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in the plot to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Mann said after Friday's verdict that he did not know whether he would appeal the sentence.
But he appeared to feel ready to endure his sentence, citing time he had already spent in a Zimbabwean jail.
The court also fined Mann €150,000 and ordered that he be barred from entering Equatorial Guinea's territory for a further 20 years after his sentence is served.
His co-accused, Lebanese-born Mohamed Salaami, was jailed for 18 years and three months with the same fine and territorial bar applied.
Mann, dressed in prison clothes, showed no emotion as the sentence was read out.
During the trial, both Mann and Salaami had expressed their remorse for the coup plot.
In his summing up, the judge recommended that the state prosecutor prepare for the extradition of other people implicated in the plot.
Mann, a former special forces officer who attended Britain’s prestigious Eton school and Sandhurst military academy, was said to be the brains behind the coup attempt.
It was aimed at overthrowing President Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the country with an iron hand since a 1979 coup that ousted his uncle, and bringing exiled opposition leader Severo Moto to power.
