Reply #40: Campaign begins to 'buy' Mann out of prison

[seemslikeadream]

By Jane Flanagan in Johannesburg and Philip Sherwell, Chief Foreign Correspondent
(Filed: 12/09/2004)

A campaign to "buy" Simon Mann out of his Zimbabwean prison cell has been launched by wealthy friends who fear for the life of the Old Etonian former SAS officer if he has to serve the seven-year term handed out in Harare on Friday.

Family and supporters of the British leader of an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea believe that the appalling conditions in Chikurubi prison will take a heavy toll on his health.

"We're also taking as deadly serious the threats against his life that some of the other defendants have been making," said a close friend. The 66 South Africans jailed with him for between 12 and 16 months months blame the 51-year-old scion of the Watney's brewing empire for their incarceration.

Friends have told Mann's heavily-pregnant wife Amanda that they will try to get him back to the family estate in Hampshire within a year. His lawyers are not appealing against the sentence for illegally trying to buy weapons for £100,000 in Harare in March.

more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/12/wmerc12.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/12/ixworld.html

:hi: